"Mr. DeMille" will be closing the store Monday, May 5 to celebrate the life of employee Jonathon Bruce who died in a hiking accident on Easter weekend. 

The 17-year-old, who was just starting his second year at DeMille's Farm Market in Salmon Arm, had already made his mark on company owner Brad DeMille who described him as a "funny, good kid" who had old fashioned manners.

"He called me Mr. DeMille religiously, and I was like, you don鈥檛 need to call me Mr. DeMille but you couldn鈥檛 tell him not to do it," he said. "It just stuck to you, this kid, how polite and old fashioned of values he was, and it just reminded just of... a time gone by.

"He sat in your subconscious just being that kid, and being so polite and so trustworthy.鈥�

DeMille also commended the teen's work ethic, that he said is too rare in a lot of kids. Jonathon would volunteer for any and every job, from cleaning toilets to learning how to drive the forklift and use the electric pallet jack. 

鈥淵ou show him once and it was done... Just such and eagerness to please and to learn," DeMille said. 鈥淚t just reminded me the kids that they鈥檙e kind of missing that, that respect for elders and even the respect for the job... and we have an amazing staff, don鈥檛 get me wrong, but this young boy just stood out.鈥�

Given the impact Jonathon had on all the staff, the market will close not just for the celebration of life but for the entire day in order to give everyone time to grieve and come together to honour and remember him.

"We can skip a day for Jonathon. We feel that it鈥檚 not fair of us to ask them to go through that process and then come be re-engaged to go back to work. It鈥檚 not fair to them," DeMille said, adding this is their first time experiencing a loss like this.

"Then we can start healing and everyone can move ahead and maybe learn something from this.鈥�

In addition to working at DeMille's and attending Salmon Arm Secondary and J.L. Jackson's Emergency Medical Responder Program, Jonathon also served on the Tappen Sunnybrae Fire Department and the BC Wildfire Rapattack team. 

鈥淭his young bright eyed kid, just he had the world in his hands," DeMille said with emotion. "He had it all at 17... he would鈥檝e been a rock star, an amazing achiever in life.鈥�