RIMBEY, ALBERTA — Volunteer firefighter Donna Noble’s life was shattered when her only child was killed in a school bus crash; now she focuses on relieving others’ suffering.
Seventeen-year-old Jenny Noble had a car of her own, but chose to take the bus to help other students with their homework on the way to school. She died instantly when a gravel truck hit the back of her school bus.
Devastated by the loss but unwilling to lose herself in grief, Donna Noble used the experience to propel her headfirst into volunteer firefighting.
“A month later I went back on the fire trucks with the belief that I couldn’t help her, but I could help somebody else,” Noble told Global News Edmonton. “I could have sat and done nothing. But that’s not me.”
Eight years later, Noble admits that she relives the pain of losing her daughter every time she hears about a parent who has lost their own child. “I know that loneliness; I know that emptiness.”
Noble still keeps a photo of Jenny in her turnout gear pocket. And on the rig, she keeps Jenny’s stuffed animals to give to small children involved in a traumatic accident.
“She was my only child and my pride and joy. But in eight years, I have grown stronger and I realize she’d be proud of me.”