Update-
Lori Coble has died at the age of 48.
The mother of teenage triplets—who previously endured the devastating loss of her first three children in a car accident—passed away from brain cancer on Wednesday, Jan. 21, according to a family friend who spoke with People.
The family friend told People, “”Lori passed away last night surrounded by her family.”
A GoFundMe has been established to support the family.
Lori Coble’s life has been marked by unimaginable tragedy—and extraordinary resilience. The Orange County, California mother survived the loss of her three young children, welcomed triplets a year later, and is now facing a devastating stage 4 brain cancer diagnosis that has once again reshaped her family’s world.
On May 4, 2007, Lori was stuck in freeway traffic, driving home to put her children—Kyle Christopher, 5, Emma Lynn, 4, and Katie Gene, 2—down for a nap when a big rig slammed into the back of her minivan. None of the children survived the crash. In the aftermath, Lori and her husband, Chris Coble, made a pact to support one another through the grief. They mourned deeply but still wanted to be parents.
After adoption efforts failed and Chris was unable to reverse a vasectomy, the couple turned to IVF. They were left with three viable embryos—two girls and a boy. “Exactly like we lost,” Chris, now 54, says. The symmetry felt meaningful. As Lori later shared with Oprah Winfrey, it seemed like a sign. They chose to implant all three embryos and “cross our fingers and hope for the best,” Chris recalls.
The triplets—Jake Christopher, Ashley Lynn, and Ellie Gene—were born almost exactly one year after their siblings’ deaths, each carrying an older sibling’s middle name. Raising them was joyful but emotionally complex. “It took me over four years to come out of the fog and pain,” Chris says. “There’s these three babies and they’re all joy…. But at the same time, I was trying to avoid falling apart in front of them.”
Lori threw herself into motherhood and advocacy, campaigning for highway safety. “She is extraordinary—everybody who knows her, loves her,” says family friend Becky Leonard. “First and foremost, she’s a mom.”
In June 2025, Chris noticed Lori, then 48, was becoming clumsy. By early July, her symptoms worsened. “Her mouth started to droop a little bit,” he says. “It became too much to ignore.” On July 11, doctors at Mission Hospital diagnosed her with a large, aggressive stage 4 glioblastoma.
“I was hoping we were done with the life-changing, life-altering disasters,” Chris tells PEOPLE. Doctors gave Lori a stark choice: treatment or comfort care. Without treatment, she had one to two months to live; with it, possibly 12 to 15 months. “She wanted to fight it,” Chris says.
Lori underwent two brain surgeries, the second at City of Hope in Duarte. Before surgery, doctors warned of a 30 percent chance she’d lose motor control on her left side. “I was generally hopeful that the 70 percent might go well,” Chris says. It didn’t. “It was a real bummer,” he adds.
Days later, Lori suffered a massive stroke. “She could have easily died,” Chris recalls. “The doctors told me she had a 50 percent chance to live.” She spent 40 days hospitalized, much of it in a medically induced coma.
Exhausted and overwhelmed, Chris reached a breaking point. “That was the day I understood why caregivers have a far higher rate of suicide,” he admits. He chose to ask for help.
With their triplets starting their senior year of high school, Chris eventually brought Lori home, creating a “mini-hospital” in their house. “What’s the best for her? And how can I keep her going?” he says. Being home helped. “She was happy and making slow progress.”
Despite ongoing chemotherapy and radiation that left her weaker, Lori remains determined. As Leonard remembers from a visit, Lori said simply, “Why can’t it be the way it was before?”
For the Coble family, every day is about time, love, and showing up—again and again—through tragedy. Lori started hospice care in early January per a Facebook update by Chris Coble.
