Herbert Ronald Dick died peacefully with his family by his side, on Saturday, January 9th, 2021 at his favourite place – the family home on Crystal Crescent in Winkler. He was 75 years old. Herb was known, loved, and valued by multitudes of friends and community members from all places and walks of life. He was beloved by his family and we are broken-hearted with his passing. Left behind are the love of his life, his wife of 54 years, Gloria; his son Chris and wife Nancy Dixon and their children Natalie and Myles; and his daughter Karla and her husband Mike Penner and their daughters Hannah, Ellie and Sasha. He also leaves behind two sisters, two brothers, and their families. He was predeceased by his parents and 5 siblings.
Herb was born in Winkler to Herbert and Elizabeth Dick on February 3rd, 1945 – the youngest of 10 children! When Herb was born his oldest siblings had long left the nest to start lives of their own. He was fortunate to have two older sisters who were very close to his age, Evie and Margaret, who took him under their wing and experienced childhood together with him. Herb was raised by parents who loved him, but who must have been so tired from raising children for so many years before him. His parents gave him a safe and secure home, delicious and ample food on the table, road trip adventures to far-away places, an understanding of their Christian faith, and lots of freedom. His mom, Elizabeth, spent many days and late nights praying for each of her children, and Herb gave her plenty of reason to keep those prayers going! His mom was an amazing example to him of loving unconditionally, making room for marginalized folks in their home and lives, and celebrating people with good food around the table, while his dad modelled community service, faithfulness, and stability.
As a young boy, Herb was drawn like a magnet to sports of all varieties. He played hockey, baseball, basketball, and before too long he fell madly in love with his lifetime favourite sport of golf. It was clear that Herb was gifted with athleticism from an early age – every sport he tried he excelled at and received great joy from playing. He was disciplined, motivated, and determined to become excellent at whatever sport he was playing; practicing for hours to develop the perfect shot and technique. Herb was also drawn to people and connection. During his high school years, this often translated into spending more time at the pool hall than in the classroom. These choices might not have resulted in him passing many courses, but it did yield him a wealth of great stories, and deep friendships – many of which continue to this day. One thing Herb did find in the classrooms of GVC was the beginnings of interest and affection for a special girl, one year his junior. Failing a class the year earlier provided him with the chance to make it up the following year and this is where his love story with Gloria began. She says that once she fell under the spell of his beautiful blue eyes, there was no turning back. Herb took Gloria out for their first official date to dinner and the Ice Capades in Winnipeg together with Eugene Letkeman and Edna Zacharias, and the rest is history. Gloria and Herb fell madly in love, and their romance outlasted quitting school, Gloria finding work in Winnipeg, and Herb’s many adventures. She often says that Herb “saved her” from a hard life of struggle, though it could be said that she saved him too, in her own way. Their love story continued to grow through the years, and they became husband and wife on September 17th, 1966.
Herb and Gloria started their married life renting a little house on Mountain Avenue in Winkler. Herb’s quest to find the right vocation was in full swing in those years. He tried, and often failed, to find the right fit of a job that he was good at, that would bring him joy, and that could support a family. Some of these attempts included being a waiter at Triangle Oasis, working as a maintenance man at Eden Health Centre, working in an Auto-Body shop, owning and running his own drive-in restaurant, and many, many others. Eventually Herb was hired by Manco Dairy in sales and driving the delivery truck. This job meant driving lots of hours on the road throughout southern Manitoba, often while tired. One fateful day in 1969 Herb fell asleep at the wheel and had a catastrophic collision with a train. Herb was thrown from the truck into a nearby field and sustained many serious injuries. There is a picture from that day of ice cream strewn across the highway from after the crash. It was a true miracle that he survived that accident and made a full recovery.
Just a short time later, Herb’s career path settled in a new direction when he was hired as a Salesman for Weston Bakeries, selling and delivering bread and bakery products all across the region. This felt like winning the lottery for Herb – finally he had a job that he knew he was good at, involved connection and relationship building with store and restaurant owners, hospitals and personal care homes, and provided him with good pay and steady work. The hours were long and the mornings were early – He often started his workday by loading his bread truck at 4:30 in the morning and didn’t pull into the depot until well after 6 – but he didn’t mind because it meant he had finally “made it”. Herb treated his job as a career, taking pride in the product he delivered and providing the most personal, attentive service to his customers that you can imagine. Whatever he did, he did with excellence, and this was no exception. Through lots of changes at Weston’s and eventually having to buy the distributorship for the region, he wore his Weston’s uniform with pride and continued being “the bread man” in Winkler until his retirement in 2005.
In 1971, life would change forever for Herb. In August of that year, he and Gloria welcomed their firstborn, a son named Christopher Herb, into their family. Having Chris join the family was a huge gift to Gloria and Herb and he was welcomed with a lot of love and hope. Having a son and secure job meant that the next phase of life unfolded and Herb and Gloria purchased their first house on Crystal Crescent that same year. Owning that house felt like a dream to both of them – it had a big beautiful yard, 3 bedrooms, and a garage. They literally pinched themselves to make sure it wasn’t a dream when they moved in, and soon they’d discover it also came with the best neighbours and community that you could imagine. Their little corner on Crystal Crescent was a mix of families that settled in and stayed the course and provided them with life-long friendships and memories that went deep. In 1974, a daughter, Karla Joanne joined and completed their little family, filling up their house on the Crescent. They never moved from their first house and tended and developed their beautiful backyard to resemble a park-like setting that brought them both immeasurable joy.
These early days were busy – full of work and fun. Herb was a huge fan of Chris and Karla’s pursuits in sports and music, and cheered them on whenever he had the chance. Many memorable family trips were taken – often to follow Herb’s Los Angeles Dodgers to different cities to catch a few games. During these years, Herb’s passion and love for the game of golf, which started as a very young teenager, only grew exponentially stronger. He spent countless weekends at tournaments throughout Manitoba, North Dakota and Minnesota and had great success. As Chris grew, he became Herb’s caddy and followed him over miles and miles of fairway. This was a real bonding experience for the two of them and Chris and Herb developed a relationship and friendship that went deeper than most fathers and sons. Herb gave his time and attention, not only to developing his own game, but to investing in the future of the game in Winkler. He was on the Executive of the Winkler Centennial Golf Course for 29 years, and served as president for 25 of those. Herb was committed to ensuring that Winkler had a high quality course that also remained affordable for the citizens and youth of Winkler. He was one of the founders of the International Golf Tournament and served several years as president. Beyond all of the trophies and success on the golf course, Herb’s greatest accomplishment through golf were the deep and life-long friends he made along the way. He made friends in every city he played in, and further developed deep and meaningful connection with his partners and opponents closer to home. Long after his golf game wasn’t what it used to be, the friendships he made had remained strong, and for that he was incredibly grateful.
Curling was another passion of Herb’s and again a place where he and Chris shared a love for the game and made good connection on the ice together. Herb skipped countless teams over the years and played the bonspiel and Super League circuits over many years and hundreds of weekends with great success. Just as with golf, Herb made friends and connections at countless curling clubs over his years on the ice and these, too, were the memories of his curling career he was most proud of.
As a life-long citizen of Winkler, no one had more pride and affection for their home than Herb did. He got downright, unapologetically boastful about the city and people of Winkler wherever he went and to whomever he was talking to. Getting involved and actively participating in making the community strong was always a part of Herb’s life. He served 10 years as a trustee on the Garden Valley School Division board, and then made the move to municipal politics, serving 22 years as a city counsellor, and one term as Deputy Mayor, retiring in 2014. Herb joked about frequently being on the short end of the 1-6 votes that came up at council. Even when the pressure was on, and when everyone else was on the opposing side, he never gave up on his beliefs and would not back down from anything he believed to be in the best interest of the people of Winkler. He could debate and argue passionately with you, but at the end of the night he’d shake your hand and want to preserve relationship. He had a compass of personal integrity focussed on both how he treated people, and how his decisions impacted the people around him. If he couldn’t look at himself in the mirror or fall asleep easily at night, he knew his stance needed adjustment and he always had the courage to go back and do what needed to be done.
After retiring from civic politics, Herb found many ways to stay busy, involved, and committed to making Winkler a better place. He spent countless hours volunteering to sing with residents at Salem Home, and joined with groups to sing at services at Boundary Trails Health Centre and Eden Health Services, sang in the Winkler Community Men’s choir, and later the Senior’s choir, made and delivered sandwiches to a soup kitchen in Winnipeg, and volunteered in the kitchen at Winkler Bible Camp. But the volunteer job that gave him the most joy and meaning of any job he’d ever had was serving on the board and hands-on volunteering as part of the Winkler Food Cupboard. When the Food Cupboard came under the umbrella of Central Station, Herb became even more excited about the possibilities the Food Cupboard had access to. Herb served as Chair and then Co-Chair of the Food Cupboard for several years. He loved finding the best deals for food to stock the shelves, made and picked up the orders, organized the food, prepared food hampers for weekly clients of the food cupboard, and built relationship. One of the best parts of this passion was that it was something he and Gloria could do together - they loved their Wednesday shifts at the Food Cupboard! Herb loved working together with Nick Friesen and Bev Wiebe and had lots of dreams and ideas of ways the Food Cupboard could help. Whenever Herb talked about The Food Cupboard, his voice got excited and he overflowed with enthusiasm for the people and the work. Not long ago, he shared that the past few years working at the Food Cupboard were the absolute best of his life.
Music and faith went hand in hand for Herb, and the thread of these two things throughout his story run deep. Herb was raised in the Mennonite church, but as he grew and became independent, he felt like he didn’t belong and wasn’t accepted for who he was. As the years went on, Herb and the family were part of Grace Mennonite Church. It was during these years that things began to change for Herb. He loved to tell the story of being asked by Karl Redekop if he’d like to join him, Harold Booy and Bob Peters and sing bass with a men’s gospel quartet. Being asked to sing with these men was a life-changing experience for Herb. He’d long loved to sing – especially 4-part harmony – but he couldn’t believe he was a good enough singer to join in. Soon they were practicing and sharing music together and it began to heal something in Herb’s heart. A few years later Karl and Bob encouraged Herb to take the step of baptism. His pastor at Grace Church at the time was Arnie Neufeld, who poured the message of God’s grace, acceptance and unconditional love into Herb. His friendships with Marv and Harv Loewen had always been a consistent source of encouragement in knowing that God’s love was full of grace. All of these people helped Herb get to the place of being baptised upon confession of his faith in 1993 at the age of 48. He was able to fully embrace the faith he’d be raised in and receive it as his own.
Herb and Gloria loved to entertain and cook gourmet meals together for their family and friends. Herb was an expert at the BBQ and his steaks and pork tenderloin were legendary. Sitting around the table with good friends, good food, and good stories filled Herb up and made his spirit come alive. Relationships were everything to him, and it’s no wonder that his life was so rich and full with so many quality people in his corner. Herb and Gloria loved their winter months in Texas where they could enjoy the warm weather and some golf games with friends from home and new friends they made.
All of these people and experiences have had a significant and lasting impact on Herb’s life, but being Papa and Pops to his 5 grandkids was the greatest gift and had the most impact on Herb’s life. Herb would share that when Hannah, his first granddaughter was born in 2000, he held her in his arms and sobbed; seeing her as a gift, and the opportunity to pour into the lives of his grandkids as his most important job. Herb was a devoted, involved, emotionally available, and fun-loving grandparent. It would be impossible to count the number of trips he made into Winnipeg to watch hockey, softball, baseball, basketball and volleyball games, listen to choirs perform, watch dance recitals, babysit, go out for special dinners and lunches, and just come for a visit. He was the biggest fan and champion of each of his 5 grandchildren, always celebrating their accomplishments with authentic joy and great delight. He was so proud of the people each of them were becoming, and wanted them to know and believe their lives mattered. Each of the grandkids believes they had the best Papa and Pops on the planet in Herb. He loved them fiercely, and with his whole heart and it showed.
Herb was an incredibly busy and involved person and although he was so young, it wasn’t a total shock in 2005, shortly after his retirement from the bread truck, that he experienced a serious heart attack. This led to surgery and a lengthy recovery. He considered himself very fortunate and grateful that his life was not cut short at that time. In 2018 he was dealt another difficult health reality when he was diagnosed with bladder cancer. This diagnosis was difficult for Herb, and he went through surgeries at HSC, chemotherapy at Boundary Trails and a long season of daily trips to Winnipeg for radiation treatment. All of these things took a lot out of Herb physically, but from the moment of his diagnosis, he never felt sorry for himself or complained once. He approached his new reality with optimism and gratitude for the things he was still able to do and participate in. He felt that there was a reason and purpose that he was given the time he had, and although he was more tired and had less energy than he used to, he intended to make the most of it and wanted to share his faith and hope in Jesus.
On October 15th, 2020, Herb suffered a stroke that would begin an intense several months that would change everything. Amazingly, he only spent 6 days in the hospital after his stroke, and returned home, ready to rehabilitate and get back to business. He went right back to coffee times with Nick to strategize about the food cupboard and volunteered at the Food Cupboard with his friends. Although he knew he’d need surgery to repair his arteries, he was hopeful that he’d regain his strength and carry on with the life he loved.
On November 13th, Herb suffered a second and more severe stroke and was rushed to Health Sciences Centre. Due to Covid restrictions, Herb had to be alone for 14 days without his family by his side. This was devastating for all of us. On November 17th he underwent surgery to open an artery to prevent further strokes. Shortly after his surgery it was clear that something wasn’t right and after many scans it was determined that he’d need abdominal surgery to repair an intestinal blockage. During this surgery, on November 22nd, it was discovered that Herb’s cancer had spread throughout his abdomen and was inoperable. This was devastating news for his family. We worked hard to advocate for Herb from a distance and eventually, Gloria was able to be by his side. These were very hard days for Herb and Gloria. Eventually it was clear that recovery of any degree was not going to be possible and that Herb would be transitioning to Palliative Care. Thankfully, on December 11th, Herb was able to be transitioned to Boundary Trails Health Centre where he could be closer to home. Here he was able to have Gloria and Chris by his side. The decision was then made to move Herb home to Crystal Crescent to be cared for by his family and home care, so that he could have time with his grandkids and kids and have the chance for his whole family to be together and spend time with him in his last days. This was the best decision we could have ever made. With the help of Dr. Cornie Woelk, Palliative care nurses Karen and Shannon, many excellent home care workers, support from Leala Kuhl and Sherry Thomas, and so many friends, we were able to care for Herb at home until he passed away peacefully, in his favourite place, with his family beside him, on Saturday, January 9th. None of this would have been possible without the help and support of the people mentioned above. We are so grateful for the honour and gift of being able to care for Herb at home.
Due to Covid restrictions, a private family service will be held on Thursday, January 14th at 1:00 p.m. Burial will follow. We are thankful to Eugene Letkeman and Harv Loewen for leading the services. We also want to express our thanks to Victor Engbrecht, Ray Giesbrecht and Fran Ginter for generously sharing their musical gifts to give Herb the send off he would have wanted. Special thanks to Jake Giesbrecht, Herb’s golf and coffee buddy and owner of Wiebe Funeral Home, for all of the compassionate and thoughtful care he offered. Thank you, also, to the countless friends who supported our family and loved Herb and Gloria over the past few months in so many practical and loving ways. We are so grateful.
Wiebe Funeral Home, Winkler
In care of arrangements
wiebefuneralhomes.com
Herb was born in Winkler to Herbert and Elizabeth Dick on February 3rd, 1945 – the youngest of 10 children! When Herb was born his oldest siblings had long left the nest to start lives of their own. He was fortunate to have two older sisters who were very close to his age, Evie and Margaret, who took him under their wing and experienced childhood together with him. Herb was raised by parents who loved him, but who must have been so tired from raising children for so many years before him. His parents gave him a safe and secure home, delicious and ample food on the table, road trip adventures to far-away places, an understanding of their Christian faith, and lots of freedom. His mom, Elizabeth, spent many days and late nights praying for each of her children, and Herb gave her plenty of reason to keep those prayers going! His mom was an amazing example to him of loving unconditionally, making room for marginalized folks in their home and lives, and celebrating people with good food around the table, while his dad modelled community service, faithfulness, and stability.
As a young boy, Herb was drawn like a magnet to sports of all varieties. He played hockey, baseball, basketball, and before too long he fell madly in love with his lifetime favourite sport of golf. It was clear that Herb was gifted with athleticism from an early age – every sport he tried he excelled at and received great joy from playing. He was disciplined, motivated, and determined to become excellent at whatever sport he was playing; practicing for hours to develop the perfect shot and technique. Herb was also drawn to people and connection. During his high school years, this often translated into spending more time at the pool hall than in the classroom. These choices might not have resulted in him passing many courses, but it did yield him a wealth of great stories, and deep friendships – many of which continue to this day. One thing Herb did find in the classrooms of GVC was the beginnings of interest and affection for a special girl, one year his junior. Failing a class the year earlier provided him with the chance to make it up the following year and this is where his love story with Gloria began. She says that once she fell under the spell of his beautiful blue eyes, there was no turning back. Herb took Gloria out for their first official date to dinner and the Ice Capades in Winnipeg together with Eugene Letkeman and Edna Zacharias, and the rest is history. Gloria and Herb fell madly in love, and their romance outlasted quitting school, Gloria finding work in Winnipeg, and Herb’s many adventures. She often says that Herb “saved her” from a hard life of struggle, though it could be said that she saved him too, in her own way. Their love story continued to grow through the years, and they became husband and wife on September 17th, 1966.
Herb and Gloria started their married life renting a little house on Mountain Avenue in Winkler. Herb’s quest to find the right vocation was in full swing in those years. He tried, and often failed, to find the right fit of a job that he was good at, that would bring him joy, and that could support a family. Some of these attempts included being a waiter at Triangle Oasis, working as a maintenance man at Eden Health Centre, working in an Auto-Body shop, owning and running his own drive-in restaurant, and many, many others. Eventually Herb was hired by Manco Dairy in sales and driving the delivery truck. This job meant driving lots of hours on the road throughout southern Manitoba, often while tired. One fateful day in 1969 Herb fell asleep at the wheel and had a catastrophic collision with a train. Herb was thrown from the truck into a nearby field and sustained many serious injuries. There is a picture from that day of ice cream strewn across the highway from after the crash. It was a true miracle that he survived that accident and made a full recovery.
Just a short time later, Herb’s career path settled in a new direction when he was hired as a Salesman for Weston Bakeries, selling and delivering bread and bakery products all across the region. This felt like winning the lottery for Herb – finally he had a job that he knew he was good at, involved connection and relationship building with store and restaurant owners, hospitals and personal care homes, and provided him with good pay and steady work. The hours were long and the mornings were early – He often started his workday by loading his bread truck at 4:30 in the morning and didn’t pull into the depot until well after 6 – but he didn’t mind because it meant he had finally “made it”. Herb treated his job as a career, taking pride in the product he delivered and providing the most personal, attentive service to his customers that you can imagine. Whatever he did, he did with excellence, and this was no exception. Through lots of changes at Weston’s and eventually having to buy the distributorship for the region, he wore his Weston’s uniform with pride and continued being “the bread man” in Winkler until his retirement in 2005.
In 1971, life would change forever for Herb. In August of that year, he and Gloria welcomed their firstborn, a son named Christopher Herb, into their family. Having Chris join the family was a huge gift to Gloria and Herb and he was welcomed with a lot of love and hope. Having a son and secure job meant that the next phase of life unfolded and Herb and Gloria purchased their first house on Crystal Crescent that same year. Owning that house felt like a dream to both of them – it had a big beautiful yard, 3 bedrooms, and a garage. They literally pinched themselves to make sure it wasn’t a dream when they moved in, and soon they’d discover it also came with the best neighbours and community that you could imagine. Their little corner on Crystal Crescent was a mix of families that settled in and stayed the course and provided them with life-long friendships and memories that went deep. In 1974, a daughter, Karla Joanne joined and completed their little family, filling up their house on the Crescent. They never moved from their first house and tended and developed their beautiful backyard to resemble a park-like setting that brought them both immeasurable joy.
These early days were busy – full of work and fun. Herb was a huge fan of Chris and Karla’s pursuits in sports and music, and cheered them on whenever he had the chance. Many memorable family trips were taken – often to follow Herb’s Los Angeles Dodgers to different cities to catch a few games. During these years, Herb’s passion and love for the game of golf, which started as a very young teenager, only grew exponentially stronger. He spent countless weekends at tournaments throughout Manitoba, North Dakota and Minnesota and had great success. As Chris grew, he became Herb’s caddy and followed him over miles and miles of fairway. This was a real bonding experience for the two of them and Chris and Herb developed a relationship and friendship that went deeper than most fathers and sons. Herb gave his time and attention, not only to developing his own game, but to investing in the future of the game in Winkler. He was on the Executive of the Winkler Centennial Golf Course for 29 years, and served as president for 25 of those. Herb was committed to ensuring that Winkler had a high quality course that also remained affordable for the citizens and youth of Winkler. He was one of the founders of the International Golf Tournament and served several years as president. Beyond all of the trophies and success on the golf course, Herb’s greatest accomplishment through golf were the deep and life-long friends he made along the way. He made friends in every city he played in, and further developed deep and meaningful connection with his partners and opponents closer to home. Long after his golf game wasn’t what it used to be, the friendships he made had remained strong, and for that he was incredibly grateful.
Curling was another passion of Herb’s and again a place where he and Chris shared a love for the game and made good connection on the ice together. Herb skipped countless teams over the years and played the bonspiel and Super League circuits over many years and hundreds of weekends with great success. Just as with golf, Herb made friends and connections at countless curling clubs over his years on the ice and these, too, were the memories of his curling career he was most proud of.
As a life-long citizen of Winkler, no one had more pride and affection for their home than Herb did. He got downright, unapologetically boastful about the city and people of Winkler wherever he went and to whomever he was talking to. Getting involved and actively participating in making the community strong was always a part of Herb’s life. He served 10 years as a trustee on the Garden Valley School Division board, and then made the move to municipal politics, serving 22 years as a city counsellor, and one term as Deputy Mayor, retiring in 2014. Herb joked about frequently being on the short end of the 1-6 votes that came up at council. Even when the pressure was on, and when everyone else was on the opposing side, he never gave up on his beliefs and would not back down from anything he believed to be in the best interest of the people of Winkler. He could debate and argue passionately with you, but at the end of the night he’d shake your hand and want to preserve relationship. He had a compass of personal integrity focussed on both how he treated people, and how his decisions impacted the people around him. If he couldn’t look at himself in the mirror or fall asleep easily at night, he knew his stance needed adjustment and he always had the courage to go back and do what needed to be done.
After retiring from civic politics, Herb found many ways to stay busy, involved, and committed to making Winkler a better place. He spent countless hours volunteering to sing with residents at Salem Home, and joined with groups to sing at services at Boundary Trails Health Centre and Eden Health Services, sang in the Winkler Community Men’s choir, and later the Senior’s choir, made and delivered sandwiches to a soup kitchen in Winnipeg, and volunteered in the kitchen at Winkler Bible Camp. But the volunteer job that gave him the most joy and meaning of any job he’d ever had was serving on the board and hands-on volunteering as part of the Winkler Food Cupboard. When the Food Cupboard came under the umbrella of Central Station, Herb became even more excited about the possibilities the Food Cupboard had access to. Herb served as Chair and then Co-Chair of the Food Cupboard for several years. He loved finding the best deals for food to stock the shelves, made and picked up the orders, organized the food, prepared food hampers for weekly clients of the food cupboard, and built relationship. One of the best parts of this passion was that it was something he and Gloria could do together - they loved their Wednesday shifts at the Food Cupboard! Herb loved working together with Nick Friesen and Bev Wiebe and had lots of dreams and ideas of ways the Food Cupboard could help. Whenever Herb talked about The Food Cupboard, his voice got excited and he overflowed with enthusiasm for the people and the work. Not long ago, he shared that the past few years working at the Food Cupboard were the absolute best of his life.
Music and faith went hand in hand for Herb, and the thread of these two things throughout his story run deep. Herb was raised in the Mennonite church, but as he grew and became independent, he felt like he didn’t belong and wasn’t accepted for who he was. As the years went on, Herb and the family were part of Grace Mennonite Church. It was during these years that things began to change for Herb. He loved to tell the story of being asked by Karl Redekop if he’d like to join him, Harold Booy and Bob Peters and sing bass with a men’s gospel quartet. Being asked to sing with these men was a life-changing experience for Herb. He’d long loved to sing – especially 4-part harmony – but he couldn’t believe he was a good enough singer to join in. Soon they were practicing and sharing music together and it began to heal something in Herb’s heart. A few years later Karl and Bob encouraged Herb to take the step of baptism. His pastor at Grace Church at the time was Arnie Neufeld, who poured the message of God’s grace, acceptance and unconditional love into Herb. His friendships with Marv and Harv Loewen had always been a consistent source of encouragement in knowing that God’s love was full of grace. All of these people helped Herb get to the place of being baptised upon confession of his faith in 1993 at the age of 48. He was able to fully embrace the faith he’d be raised in and receive it as his own.
Herb and Gloria loved to entertain and cook gourmet meals together for their family and friends. Herb was an expert at the BBQ and his steaks and pork tenderloin were legendary. Sitting around the table with good friends, good food, and good stories filled Herb up and made his spirit come alive. Relationships were everything to him, and it’s no wonder that his life was so rich and full with so many quality people in his corner. Herb and Gloria loved their winter months in Texas where they could enjoy the warm weather and some golf games with friends from home and new friends they made.
All of these people and experiences have had a significant and lasting impact on Herb’s life, but being Papa and Pops to his 5 grandkids was the greatest gift and had the most impact on Herb’s life. Herb would share that when Hannah, his first granddaughter was born in 2000, he held her in his arms and sobbed; seeing her as a gift, and the opportunity to pour into the lives of his grandkids as his most important job. Herb was a devoted, involved, emotionally available, and fun-loving grandparent. It would be impossible to count the number of trips he made into Winnipeg to watch hockey, softball, baseball, basketball and volleyball games, listen to choirs perform, watch dance recitals, babysit, go out for special dinners and lunches, and just come for a visit. He was the biggest fan and champion of each of his 5 grandchildren, always celebrating their accomplishments with authentic joy and great delight. He was so proud of the people each of them were becoming, and wanted them to know and believe their lives mattered. Each of the grandkids believes they had the best Papa and Pops on the planet in Herb. He loved them fiercely, and with his whole heart and it showed.
Herb was an incredibly busy and involved person and although he was so young, it wasn’t a total shock in 2005, shortly after his retirement from the bread truck, that he experienced a serious heart attack. This led to surgery and a lengthy recovery. He considered himself very fortunate and grateful that his life was not cut short at that time. In 2018 he was dealt another difficult health reality when he was diagnosed with bladder cancer. This diagnosis was difficult for Herb, and he went through surgeries at HSC, chemotherapy at Boundary Trails and a long season of daily trips to Winnipeg for radiation treatment. All of these things took a lot out of Herb physically, but from the moment of his diagnosis, he never felt sorry for himself or complained once. He approached his new reality with optimism and gratitude for the things he was still able to do and participate in. He felt that there was a reason and purpose that he was given the time he had, and although he was more tired and had less energy than he used to, he intended to make the most of it and wanted to share his faith and hope in Jesus.
On October 15th, 2020, Herb suffered a stroke that would begin an intense several months that would change everything. Amazingly, he only spent 6 days in the hospital after his stroke, and returned home, ready to rehabilitate and get back to business. He went right back to coffee times with Nick to strategize about the food cupboard and volunteered at the Food Cupboard with his friends. Although he knew he’d need surgery to repair his arteries, he was hopeful that he’d regain his strength and carry on with the life he loved.
On November 13th, Herb suffered a second and more severe stroke and was rushed to Health Sciences Centre. Due to Covid restrictions, Herb had to be alone for 14 days without his family by his side. This was devastating for all of us. On November 17th he underwent surgery to open an artery to prevent further strokes. Shortly after his surgery it was clear that something wasn’t right and after many scans it was determined that he’d need abdominal surgery to repair an intestinal blockage. During this surgery, on November 22nd, it was discovered that Herb’s cancer had spread throughout his abdomen and was inoperable. This was devastating news for his family. We worked hard to advocate for Herb from a distance and eventually, Gloria was able to be by his side. These were very hard days for Herb and Gloria. Eventually it was clear that recovery of any degree was not going to be possible and that Herb would be transitioning to Palliative Care. Thankfully, on December 11th, Herb was able to be transitioned to Boundary Trails Health Centre where he could be closer to home. Here he was able to have Gloria and Chris by his side. The decision was then made to move Herb home to Crystal Crescent to be cared for by his family and home care, so that he could have time with his grandkids and kids and have the chance for his whole family to be together and spend time with him in his last days. This was the best decision we could have ever made. With the help of Dr. Cornie Woelk, Palliative care nurses Karen and Shannon, many excellent home care workers, support from Leala Kuhl and Sherry Thomas, and so many friends, we were able to care for Herb at home until he passed away peacefully, in his favourite place, with his family beside him, on Saturday, January 9th. None of this would have been possible without the help and support of the people mentioned above. We are so grateful for the honour and gift of being able to care for Herb at home.
Due to Covid restrictions, a private family service will be held on Thursday, January 14th at 1:00 p.m. Burial will follow. We are thankful to Eugene Letkeman and Harv Loewen for leading the services. We also want to express our thanks to Victor Engbrecht, Ray Giesbrecht and Fran Ginter for generously sharing their musical gifts to give Herb the send off he would have wanted. Special thanks to Jake Giesbrecht, Herb’s golf and coffee buddy and owner of Wiebe Funeral Home, for all of the compassionate and thoughtful care he offered. Thank you, also, to the countless friends who supported our family and loved Herb and Gloria over the past few months in so many practical and loving ways. We are so grateful.
Wiebe Funeral Home, Winkler
In care of arrangements
wiebefuneralhomes.com