Robert "Donnie" Link

Robert Link, also known as Donnie to his family and close friends, passed away peacefully at home on Thursday, December 4, 2025.

He will be so missed by his wife, Susan (nee Lang), with whom he has shared his life since 1969, his four sons, Kevin (Yogeeta), Kelly (Val), Robert, and George (Tina), and his five grandsons, Brandon, Justin, Hunter, Dawson, and Damien.

He will be sadly missed by his brother George Link and sisters (Evelyn), Darlene Normandin (Yves), Laura Sutherland (Dale), Doris Leclair (Gordon Paulsen), Alice Lowe (Robert), and Debbie Link. Donnie is predeceased by his parents, George and Mary (Thomas) Link, and his siblings, Leslie Link, Louis Link, Marion Link, Joyce Kelly, and Shirley Weibel.

He was also a large piece of the Lang family, Sharon and Guy Campbell, Byron and Karen Lang, Nancy Lang, Peter Lang, and Nelson Lang, and their families, who loved him and thought of him as their brother.

Robert was born and raised in Hodgson, a small town in rural Manitoba, and moved to Winnipeg when he was a teenager, where he met Susan in 1969. He spent most of his career as an Alamac Raise Miner, which took him all over Canada, the US, Indonesia, and Guatemala. His job meant his family moved frequently, and he was often away for extended periods.

When he was home, he spent all his time with his family. In the summer, they would go on camping trips, swimming, and long hikes. In the winter, he loved to go on winter picnics where he would build a fire and seats made of snow. Whether he was playing board games, cards, or telling them scary stories – his boys loved to be with him. They always knew that if they had a problem, Dad would find a way to fix it or walk them through it.

He was a self-taught mechanic, carpenter, and landscaper. and could do everything from changing his brakes to putting a new motor in his car. He loved a project. He completely renovated all their homes, from changing the floors, redoing bathrooms and kitchens, putting on new shingles, and adding decks, pathways, and gardens.

Suffering his whole life from the curse of perfectionism meant nothing was ever truly finished; it could always be improved. Everything was a challenge - it took until he was 75 to talk him into a snowblower, and even after he bought one, you could see him out shoveling by hand his 180-foot driveway, partly for the satisfaction of being able to do it and partly because the snowblower didn’t make the sides straight enough. He never needed a repairman - if it broke (the dryer, the dishwasher, a plumbing problem), he fixed it. If he didn’t know how, he would find out.

Always improving everything around him, always moving, always caring, and we will always carry on loving him.