Carleton Place bride made ‘lovely’ memory
Carleton Place woman dies in fall from balcony at Mexican hotel
The accidental death of Shannon Amy Guy during her honeymoon in Mexico leaves family, friends in mourning.
There are, no doubt, plenty of memories by which those who knew Shannon Amy Guy will remember the young woman. Perhaps, though, if there is a recent memory they will readily recall, it is the sight of Shannon in a bridal gown at her August wedding.
“She just looked so lovely, so sweet,” said Nancy Wheeler, a friend and work colleague. “Everything was falling into place for her.”
That happiness ended Wednesday when the 24-year-old Carleton Place woman fell to her death at a Mexican resort hotel after a glass panel on the balcony railing gave way. She’d arrived at the Oasis Tulum, on the Mayan Riviera south of Cancun, a day earlier with her husband, Paul Guy.
They were on their honeymoon. Sweethearts since high school, they’d been married about a month-anda-half.
“MEXICO!!!!!!! See ya’ll in a week,” Shannon wrote on her Facebook page after they arrived. Her husband echoed the sentiment in his Facebook posting: “We Have arrived in Mexico!!!! All is good (and) we are settled at the resort.”
It wasn’t good for long. The couple were standing on the balcony outside their honeymoon suite with another twosome they’d met. Shannon’s husband was taking pictures.
Without warning, the glass panel on the third-floor balcony broke and all four plunged to the ground. Shannon was killed; the three others were taken to hospital with injuries.
Officials with Foreign Affairs have contacted local authorities about the incident “to gather additional information” and provide “consular assistance to those affected,” as a department spokesman put it.
“Our thoughts and deepest sympathies are will the family and friends of the Canadian who passed away and the two other Canadians who were injured.”
A similar incident occurred at the same hotel a couple of years ago and a woman was killed. CBC News reported that the wing of the hotel where the couple stayed had not received safety approval. Back in Canada, family and friends are in mourning.
“She was a beautiful girl,” Paul Guy’s mother, Darlene Guy, told CBC. “She was kind. She was considerate. She was very close to me and my husband.”
As for her son, she said, “He just kept saying, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry.’ He feels sorry it wasn’t him.”
Other news report cited witnesses who described Paul Guy as being “severely in shock,” wandering aimlessly after the fall.
“It’s tragic,” said Amanda Scantland, who, like Wheeler, worked with Shannon at Sinders Bridal House in Carleton Place.
Scantland recalled a Facebook entry Shannon had posted shortly after the wedding: “‘I love my husband, I love my children. I love my life.’ At that moment everything was exactly perfect for her. It’s just so sad.”
Shannon, she said, was the kind of person who had a “presence.”
As she put it: “You knew Shannon was in the room even if you couldn’t see her.”
Others echoed that sentiment. “She was a very happy person,” said Gabrielle Stern- Young, who hired her three years ago at the bridal house. “You could see it in the (wedding) pictures that she
‘At her wedding, she got her Dad up to do that Gangnam-style dance with her. I’d never seen Shannon so happy as the day of her wedding.’ NANCY NANCY WHEELER WHEELER Friend Friend and and colleague colleague of of Shannon Shannon Amy Amy Guy Guy
showed us. She was in a good place in their life.”
Stern-Young described her employee as the kind of person customers appreciated — “very personable.”
She also had a gift for details, able to remember whether the store had a particular dress, or when it was coming in, and who it was for.
“We have over 300 brides’ maids dresses upstairs, and I could ask Shannon about Style A and she would rhyme off, ‘Yes, we have it. It’s in blue and it’s $200.’ She was amazing that way.”
Besides her store experience, the young woman had taken courses in community and justice services at Algonquin College.
But she’d worked at the bridal store for the past three years, though for the past nine months she had been on maternity leave. She was expected back at the store in December.
Store staff intend to establish a fund as a memorial to their co-worker.
“We’d like to raise some money for her kids, but we haven’t figured out the details yet,” Stern-Young said.
Shannon had two daughters, three-year-old Kaydence and Harmony, who is not yet a year old.
The children’s names reflect Shannon’s love of music, friends said.
“She was very devoted to her children,” said Scantland. “Her goal was to buy a house where she and Paul could raise their children.”
“She adored her little girls and her husband,” Wheeler added.
“She’d been with Paul for years. I think they were high school sweethearts.”
She will certainly be missed. “She brought a lot of fun to Sinders,” said Wheeler.
“Some of us, the older ones, were sort of mothers to Shannon. People cared about her. She was kind of special.”
Wheeler has a particular special memory by which she will remember the young woman.
“At her wedding, she got her Dad up to do that Gangnam-style dance with her.
“I’d never seen Shannon so happy as the day of her wedding.”