A Ladera Ranch mother, whose tragic story of losing her three young children in a freeway accident in 2007 broke the hearts of so many, has died.
Now, nearly 20 years later, her story of loss — and hope restored with the birth of triplets in 2008 — continues to resonate with a community who loved her then, and now.
Coble, 48, was diagnosed with aggressive brain cancer and breast cancer in August and since word of her illnesses broke across social media, community members in Orange County and beyond prayed for her and helped raise $323,755, enabling her husband, Chris Coble, to be by her side through surgeries and hospital stays.
This week, Chris Coble announced his wife’s death on Wednesday, Jan. 21, on her Instagram account “after her courageous battle with glioblastoma.”
“Lori was deeply loved and supported throughout this journey. She was surrounded by care, peace and those who held her close as she passed,” he wrote. “Her strength, kindness, and quiet courage touched far more people than she ever realized.”
Days earlier, Coble had posted that after continuing complications, his wife had decided to have “no more surgeries” and go into hospice care at home.
“I want to thank everyone for their love and support over these past six months,” he wrote. “Your donations made it possible for me to be by Lori’s side every day, along with paying for her expensive home care costs. For that, I will be forever grateful.”
In Orange County and, especially in Ladera Ranch, where the family has lived, many remember the crash on May 4, 2007, along the 5 freeway near Oso Parkway in Mission Viejo in which the couple’s three children, Kyle, 5, Katie, 4, and Emma, 2, died after a big rig driver plowed into the back of Lori Coble’s minivan as the family was returning from a birthday party outing.
The truck driver was convicted of vehicular manslaughter, but the Cobles’ wrongful-death lawsuit against Caltrans, arguing that faulty freeway design led to the backup their car was in when the big rig came around the bend, was lost in a jury trial. The tragedy did spark reforms, including renewed calls for highway safety, with the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein pushing for more oversight of the trucking industry, including regulations on driver logs and mandatory rest breaks.
The community of Ladera Ranch rallied around the couple — more than 100,000 pink and blue ribbons were wrapped around trees and light poles throughout South Orange County. People from more than 1,000 cities around the world sent e-mails to the Cobles.
Among those there to help Lori and Chris Coble in their grief was Roger Rustad, a Mission Hospital trauma chaplain who was with the family hours after the fatal crash. Lori Coble was in the hospital with her own injuries from the crash when Rustad had the task of breaking the unbearable news about the loss of Kyle, Emma and Katie, who had been taken to different facilities.
“I remember having to go up and tell her that I knew the children had passed away,” he said Friday. “The sun was just coming through the window, and I remember sitting with her and holding her hand, and she was just sobbing and sobbing. I couldn’t begin to imagine the grief she was going through. I’ll never forget that.”
He helped coordinate the funeral, held more than 20 fundraisers for the family, and helped create DVDs and a website to memorialize the three children.
“She’s one of the kindest people I’ve ever met,” he said. “When I looked into her eyes, I could see the sorrow, and it was so evident what she was going through. She was always so grateful each time I visited and thanked me for giving her the encouragement to go on, and she held to God’s promise that life and love are never truly lost, only transformed.”
When, almost a year later, on May 1, 2008, Lori Coble gave birth to triplets, two girls, Ashley and Ellie, and a boy, Jake, Rusted said he witnessed her pure joy.
“I sat in the hospital room again as God placed in her arms the gift of life, the same blessings of two daughters and a son,” he said. “She poured every breath of hope, gratitude and devotion into raising those children, determined their lives would honor the memory of the ones she lost.”
Rustad said that Lori Coble told him, “God gave me back what I thought I had lost forever, not the same children, but the same love.”
“And that lives on in the eyes of her triplets, now young adults, carrying the spirit of the mother who taught them what it means to live with faith that cannot be shaken,” Rustad said, adding that he has kept tabs on the family mainly through social media.
In 2010, the Cobles appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show with their three children, but since then, the couple led a more private life. Lori Coble would share the occasional highlights and memories on social media as the children made their way through lives involved in sports and school.
In the fall, the triplets started their senior year of high school, and Lori and Chris Coble celebrated their 23rd wedding anniversary in July.