A Michigan man who defied state lockdown restrictions to keep his diner open last year during the pandemic, partly to pay for his wife’s cancer treatment, has died of complications from Covid-19.
John Parney, 62, the owner of the Quincy Diner in Quincy, Michigan, died after a two month battle against the virus on December 14.
Parney continued running the small diner and lunch spot in December 2020 in violation of orders from the Michigan health department, which was trying to reduce the spread of COVID-19 by banning dine-in business.
John Parney, 62, who was unvaccinated, died of Covid on Dec. 14. He defied Michigan virus lockdowns and kept his restaurant open to help pay for his wife, Paula’s cancer treatment.
While he kept the Quincy Diner open during Michigan’s 2020 COVID-19 lockdown, he made sure that employees work masks and customers were spread out
‘My wife’s fighting stage-four colon cancer,’ Parney said at the time. ‘We depend on this restaurant to help subsidize 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.’
Employees wore masks and customers were spread out.
‘We’re doing all the stuff we’re supposed to do, other than the fact that my doors are open,’ Parney said.
Since the start of the pandemic, more than 51.5 million Americans have been infected with COVID-19
More than 812,000 Americans have died of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic
The diner qualified for the federal pandemic Paycheck Protection Program, but didn’t get enough money to justify closing, his family said.
When his wife, Paula Parney, came down with stage four cancer she was forced to quit her job as a paraprofessional for a local school and had to stop working at the diner, her family said.
With grit and determination, John Parney, stepped up and took on a job as a manager at an area casino doing full shifts at both businesses, his brother-in-law said.
He first tested positive for the virus on September 29. Parney wasn’t vaccinated against COVID-19 but had pledged during his illness to get a shot ‘because the battle, at that point, was worse than any training he endured in the military,’ his family said.
The small-town restaurateur fought like a soldier all the way, his brother-in-law said on his GoFundMe page, set up to raise money to benefit his wife Paula.
He was in and out of the hospital, then back in and forced to go on a ventilator, undergo lung surgery and eventually was placed on a feeding tube until the succumbed to the virus.
‘If you know John Parney, you know that he is a fighter! ‘ his brother-in-law, who was not named, wrote on the crowd funding site. ‘A former United States Marine who served our country boldly and honorably discharged, he is a patriot through and through.’