The owner of Bracebridge’s Gagnon’s Your Independent Grocer has passed away at the age of 58.
The family of Guy Gagnon says he passed away on Tuesday, March 15 at the South Muskoka Memorial Hospital in Bracebridge.
He was known in the community for his generosity. The obituary written by his family notes he and his wife Judy, who he co-owned the grocery store with, would hold Christmas Day dinners in the store for those who were without their family during the holidays.
Guy and Judy Gagnon owned and operated the store for nearly two decades.
He also helped raise money for the Bracebridge hospital. The money raised helped purchase a new CT scanner. He was also a long-time supporter of the Manna Food Bank, Special Olympics, the Muskoka Lions Club, Interval House, the Muskoka Children’s Foundation, and the Rotary Club of Bracebridge, according to his family.
Gagnon was honoured as the Rotary Club of Bracebridge’s Citizen of the Year in 2013.
“Guy believed in giving back to his community and providing support for anyone,” the obituary reads.
“His passing is one that certainly shocked many of us and has dimmed the light in our community a little bit by not having Guy be part of it,” Rick Maloney, Bracebridge’s Deputy Mayor, said during council this week, adding that council’s sympathies and condolences go out to the Gagnon family.
The family asks that, in lieu of flowers, donations in Gagnon’s memory be made to the South Muskoka Memorial Hospital Foundation or Bracebridge’s Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.