Bernice Ruth Lybeck

Bernice passed away peacefully at The Hospice at Glengarda in Saskatoon.

She is survived by her husband Jim McHugh, her stepdaughter Haila (Cam) Friedrich, her grandchildren Jayden and Samantha Friedrich, her brother Kel (Lil) Lybeck, and numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins.

She was predeceased by her father Halvard, mother Olive, sister Lavina, brother Clinton, sister Barbara, and nephews Michael and Christopher.

A graveside family service will be held at 2:30 PM on Saturday, June 14, 2025, at the Belbutte Lutheran Cemetery. The Eulogy to be presented at that service follows below.

Memorial donations may be made to Glengarda Hospice on the St. Paul’s Hospital Foundation webpage (www.stpaulshospital.org/foundation/dontate) in memory of Bernice Lybeck (McHugh) as tokens of remembrance.

Martens Warman Funeral Home is honoured to be entrusted with Bernice Lybeck's care and arrangements.

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BERNICE RUTH LYBECK
1959 - 2025

Eulogy

We are here today to remember and celebrate the life of Bernice Ruth Lybeck, a beloved wife, stepmother, grandmother, sister, aunt, cousin, and friend.

Bernice was born on March 29, 1959, in North Battleford, Saskatchewan and passed away April 30, 2025, at the age of 66.

From her birth, until 1969, Bernice and her family moved two or three times, but the family lived near Rabbit Lake for most of that time. She attended Rabbit Lake School from grades one through four.

From the age of ten, Bernice lived on the family farm near North Battleford. She completed elementary school in Battleford and high school in North Battleford.

She spoke often about how one of her favourite thoughts about living there was that her best friend Lorri lived right across the Saskatchewan river from her. At night they could each see the lights on at the other's house. Bernice’s niece Janessa believes that had they been able, they would have built a bridge across the river so that it would have been easier for them to spend more time together.

Lorri recalled two beautiful girls, Bernice and her sister Barb, coming to Battlefords Central School in 1969 when she and Bernice were in grade five. She said, “Bernice was immediately likeable, funny, a little wise for her age, and always up for anything. Everyone loved her. She was kind, gentle, fun loving, and adventurous - and that never changed. She was always concerned about others and always available to give a helping hand.” Lorri and Bernice became friends quickly, a friendship that lasted a lifetime.

Bernice spent countless hours in her adolescence and early adulthood working to care for abandoned pets. She was one of the founding members of the SPCA in the Battlefords. When she wasn’t driving one of the animals to her parents’ farm asking if they knew anyone that needed a pet, she had her nose in a book. She was always a serious student.

She loved to read every day of her life. Even now you can go to “Bernice’s library” in the basement of her house. It contains hundreds of books. Bernice loved to draw and paint but never formally pursued those interests beyond a university course in drawing. Inevitably, her energy was taken up by reading and caring for people. She prepared an exhaustive online genealogy of her own heritage but likely got far more pleasure preparing one of her neighbour Marlene’s heritage and giving it to her as a gift.

In 1992, when Bernice was in her mid-thirties, she moved to Vancouver to work on a degree in criminology, some of the prerequisites for which she had taken from the University of Saskatchewan, through North West Regional College in North Battleford. When she moved to Saskatoon in 1994, she transferred the courses she had taken from the University of Saskatchewan and Simon Fraser University to the University of Regina and completed a Bachelor of Social Work Degree at their Saskatoon Campus. Bernice never practiced social work as a vocation but as an avocation – and we all benefitted.

Bernice was a very determined and bright woman. She once received a grade of 93 on a test and believed she should have got a better mark. She went to the professor and clearly and repeatedly made her point until she received a grade of 98.

Bernice was always a kind and caring woman. However, she could be fierce when necessary. When a man broke into her apartment in Vancouver, she managed to scare him away. However, when he jumped off the balcony, Bernice noticed he was limping and yelled out to see if he was okay.

Bernice always talked about how she adored Vancouver. When Bernice went there in 1992 to study, she and Lorri were reunited for a time. In 1994 when Bernice returned to Saskatchewan, they continued their loyal and loving friendship through the joys and sorrows of a lifetime.

Bernice loved her sisters and spent as much time as possible with them. She went to Jamaica with her older sister Lavina when she was 20, a trip she recounted many times over the years. She visited Lavina in her British Columbia home many times - often to try and help Lavina bring some order to the many possessions inside and outside of her home.

Bernice was very close to her little sister Barb. They lived together in early adulthood and later lived across the street from each other. Accordingly, they were neighbors until they were in their early 30’s. Bernice treated Janessa and Justin as if she were their second mom. She means the world to them; they meant the world to her.

Kel, Bernice’s brother, brought comfort and joy to her whenever she saw him. His kindness and concern, especially during her illness, was a constant source of strength and good-natured humour. Visits by Kel, and their shared nephew Justin, inevitably brought Bernice’s trademark smile to her face.

Bernice was always a hard worker. After high school, she worked at a real estate agency in North Battleford and later became a secretary at the North Battleford Comprehensive High School. Little did she know when she and Jim McHugh, or as she later called him, Jimmy, went to work there in 1984, that he would become her husband. When they were saying goodbye to each other they often referred to each other as Charlie and Pete.

At Christmas time in 1994, Bernice decided to move from Vancouver back to Saskatchewan to be with Jim. They married two days before Christmas in 1995, only nine days after her father Halvard had died. They lived in Saskatoon, where they spent over thirty years together, almost all that time in their house they nicknamed Munrovia, because of its location on Munroe Avenue.

Her house was inevitably filled with her young, and not so young, grandchildren, nieces, and nephews. Her grandchildren, Jayden and Samantha, and Barb’s three youngest girls, Sara, Emily, and Alicea, were often referred to by Bernice and Jim as their five girls. Bernice’s home remains a touchstone to them all, to this day. Also, there were lots of short, and often extended visits from siblings, her mother, her friend Lorri, and many members of Jim’s family, who she thought of as her own.

Bernice was passionate about taking care of others. She didn’t love to garden but loved to help people, even if that meant taking care of their garden, as she did for years, for Marlene, her next-door neighbour, who was twenty-three years her senior. She loved going next door to hear Marlene’s countless fascinating stories.

Bernice’s caring nature, and the way she could always see the good in people meant so much to so many. If she wasn’t calling family members and warning them about road conditions, she was looking for shoes for a homeless person she encountered on one of her long walks.

Bernice’s impact on those around her was, and is, profound. She taught us the importance of being kind to one another. She taught us to live life without regrets although she herself had many. She taught us to not only take care of one another but to care for ourselves. To always try your best - but that you are good enough exactly as you are. She also taught us to love unconditionally.

Bernice always knew the importance of keeping a secret. She had the same secret code with her friend Lorri since they were kids. Neither one of them would tell us what it means and none of us can figure out with their secret code is.

Bernice had a natural way to make things better. Whenever she would stay in her niece Janessa’s camper, she somehow would make it better, whether it was putting a couple of new camping mugs in the cupboard or leaving a heartfelt note with a bar of chocolate.

If someone stayed at her house, their favorite items were waiting, often in a tray by their bedside – and a giant container of Lorri’s iced tea was always in the cupboard. Even as she became very ill and weak she made sure the smell of baking was in the house when people came to visit.

We know this isn’t a goodbye Bernice, but simply a see you later, as we continue to find traces of your life everywhere you’ve been, and in everyone you touched. We will all do our very best to see the world as though through your eyes, and to love all people and living creatures the way that you did. A piece of our hearts left when you left this world, but you will live in our hearts forever. We love you to the moon and back!