HOLLIS – Gina Bracci, who for years operated the Aspirations bakery and restaurant on Proctor Hill Road with her mother, Susan, died Tuesday night after her car struck a tree on Twiss Lane, not far from her Dow Road home.

Bracci, 40, was traveling east on Twiss Lane when she apparently lost control of her 2001 Saab sedan and hit a large tree on the south side of the road. The accident occurred about three-quarters of a mile west of Depot Road.

The crash was reported at 11:05 p.m.

“We had to tell everyone internally, before we sent out the release,” said police Lt. James Sartell, explaining that many of the members of the town’s police force had been customers of the bakery and restaurant that Bracci and her mother had run for about 15 years.

Bracci was well-known and well-liked, and the business she and her mother ran was popular.

In 2002, they sold Aspirations, which was relocated to Amherst under the same name and continues to operate.

Bracci later went to work for the Brookdale Fruit Farm, where she was employed for about four years, according to a manager who said Bracci had been a good friend.

“It hasn’t really sunk in yet,” said the manager.

Added Eleanor Whittemore, an owner of the local farm whose path often crossed with Bracci’s at the farmstand, “She and I always got along fine.”

Chu Son, owner and operator of the Hollis Village Grocery, said Bracci was a regular customer for more than 14 years.

“We knew each other well,” Son said. “She was a cool person, easy-going. She’d come in and buy something and leave the change in the cup. She’d say, ‘Keep the change.’”

Son said Bracci came into the store daily. The two would always find something to joke about, she added.

A 1989 graduate of Hollis/Brookline High School, Bracci was a lifetime member of the New Hampshire Horse and Trail Association.

She loved horses as a girl and owned one that she rode at the town riding ring, said childhood friend Jayne Belanger, a 1987 graduate of Hollis/Brooklline High School and now an employee at the Hollis Veterinary Hospital.

“We’d meet at the town ring and ride,” Belanger said, recalling that as a 12-year-old Bracci had been “outgoing, friendly and fun to be around.”

Belanger said she and Bracci “went our separate ways” as teenagers, and she was stunned by the news that was spreading across town Wednesday morning.

“It’s shocking and sad. A sad, sad thing,” Belanger said.

The accident is still under investigation by the Hollis Police Department. Anyone with information about the crash is urged to call police at 465-7637.

Hattie Bernstein can be reached at 673-3100, ext. 24 or hbernstein@cabinet.com.