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Irene Dub\u00e9 and her late husband were known for their massive monetary donations to the city\u2019s hospitals, but she also knit hundreds of afghans and blankets by hand, and prayed over each of them for patients and strangers she\u2019d never meet.<\/p>\n
Those blankets went to beds at the Irene & Leslie Dube Centre for Mental Health in Saskatoon, and later the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe had boxes full,\u201d said Steve Shannon, CEO of the Saskatoon City Hospital Foundation, who knew the Dub\u00e9s for nearly two decades.<\/p>\n
He still has his own, a Christmas give from Irene.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always cherish that afghan,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Irene, who along with her late husband Leslie Dub\u00e9 gave millions for health care,\u00a0mental health care, medical imaging and children\u2019s care across the province, died at home on Tuesday.\u00a0She was 89.<\/p>\n
The couple gave roughly $10 million to a University of Saskatchewan medical library, along with millions more for the Dube Centre and the children\u2019s hospital.<\/p>\n
Shannon said the Dub\u00e9s saw philanthropy as a calling.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey saw giving \u2026 as their calling to do God\u2019s work here on Earth,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s why they wanted their name up on everything \u2014 to remind you and I that we could make a difference too.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said they believed “sharing was good for the soul.”<\/p>\n
\u201cIf everyone took away everything that they have supported over the years, and paused for a moment \u2014 that was their impact,\u201d Shannon said. \u201cNone of these things would have been realized if it wasn\u2019t for their gifts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mental health was close to Irene\u2019s heart. Shannon said Irene lived with mental-health struggles herself and spoke openly about them at a time when almost no one did.<\/p>\n
\u201cA small, frail little lady \u2014 kind, warm and not afraid to speak her mind,\u201d Shannon said.<\/p>\n
According to an obituary posted by the Saskatoon Funeral Home, Irene was born on July 25, 1936, in Wynyard, Sask., the ninth of 10 children for Sigrun and Baldvin Sigurdson.<\/p>\n
Les started a produce importing business in 1967 and Irene worked as the bookkeeper, the obit says.<\/p>\n
It says Irene took on larger roles as their enterprise grew and, “was Les’ partner in building the businesses.”<\/p>\n
\u201cMom was a worker and tough as nails. There was nothing she would not roll up her sleeves and do herself, which brought the admiration of those she worked with,\u201d her obituary reads.<\/p>\n
Leslie and Irene were both named to the Order of Canada in 2017 in recognition of their philanthropy in health, education and their community. They also received the Saskatchewan Order of Merit in 2008 and received honorary degrees from the University of Saskatchewan in 2007.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":731163,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":["post-731162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=731162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/731163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}