Restaurant owner who defied shutdown dies after Covid battle
A restaurant owner who defied state lockdown orders and was unvaccinated has died from coronavirus.
John Parney Sr, 62, who ran Quincy Diner in the US state of Michigan, died on December 14, according to his obituary.
Mr Parney kept the restaurant open in December 2020, against public health orders from the state of Michigan. He did, however, require masks and social distancing in the establishment.
“My wife’s fighting stage-four colon cancer,” he told MLive.com last year.
“We depend on this restaurant to help subsidise billing and all of that. My employees need that. Of course, if I’d have stayed closed much longer, I’d have lost the business.”
His wife Paula Parney is still fighting the cancer but “doing great”, her sister Heidi Hodshire told the publication.
Ms Hodshire called Mr Parney "a great man".
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Mr Parney was hospitalised with shortness of breath and flu-like symptoms in September, according to a GoFundMe page.
He spent three days in hospital before he was discharged. Mr Parney returned to hospital and eventually required a ventilator.
The page confirmed he had not been vaccinated but claims he intended to as his condition worsened. He was a member of the military before he ran the diner.
“During his battle, when he was able to talk, John shared with his family that he will be getting vaccinated because the battle, at that point, was worse than any training he endured in the military,” the page reads.
He is survived by his wife and three children.
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