Widow of MTA Subway Hero Felt Something Was Wrong After Not Hearing From Husband During Overnight Shift
“It doesn’t surprise me that this is how he lost his life,” said the 33-year-old mom. “He would do anything (to help) ... He was a great guy. He was funny. He was the best father. He loved his kids to much.” Goble and Rodriguez married in 2018 after 12 years together and two sons: 10-year-old Noah and five-month-old (Obtained by IBEX News)
(IBEXNews) – Delilah Rodriguez, awake and tending to her 5-month-old son, waited all night for a phone call that never came.
Her husband, MTA train operator Garrett Goble, checked in regularly with his wife during breaks on his overnight shift. But her phone never rang early Friday, and her worst fears were quickly confirmed: The 36-year-old father of two boys died shortly after rescuing overnight riders aboard an uptown No. 2 train from a smoky blaze on the tracks beneath W. 110th St.
“I knew something was wrong when I didn’t hear from him,” a weeping Rodriguez told the Daily News in a Saturday interview at her Brooklyn home. She said the details of Goble, 36, dying a hero in the darkness of a subway tunnel were in keeping with the way he lived.
“It doesn’t surprise me that this is how he lost his life,” said the 33-year-old mom. “He would do anything (to help) ... He was a great guy. He was funny. He was the best father. He loved his kids so much.”
MTA train operator Garrett Goble (Obtained by IBEX News)
Goble and Rodriguez married in 2018 after 12 years together, and were the parents of two sons: 10-year-old Noah and 5-month-old Hunter. The older boy was particularly devastated, according to his mom: “That’s his best friend.”
Cops were still looking for answers in the deadly subterranean fire, scouring the train stations along the Upper West Side for video that shows the likely suspect setting fires at two other subway stations along the route. The roaring blaze that gutted the train occurred after the Bronx-bound subway came to a complete halt inside the station, with a burned-out shopping cart left inside the wreckage.
A man picked up Friday and questioned at the 28th Precinct was turned loose after cops determined he was not involved in the blaze. There was no one arrested or even in NYPD custody a day later.
Friends and colleagues remembered Goble, a six-year MTA veteran, as a kind and loving man whose first instinct was to help. The MTA posted a $50,000 reward for any information leading to an arrest and conviction in the deadly blaze.
Rodriguez recalled rushing to Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan after learning through social media and the news that her husband was taken there, and managed to see her spouse once inside. Authorities believe the subway worker became disoriented by the thick smoke and collapsed, possibly from a cardiac arrest.
“We loved each other so much,” said Rodriguez, the happy memory eliciting a laugh. “People would say it was gross. He was funny. The life of the party. The life of my party. And he will always be that for me.”
She paused for a moment before the tears came again.
“Keep my in your prayers,” she finally said.