Hello, for those that dont know me I am Mark McMillan. Ive known Chris since college. We were both in the same program at Conestoga back in 1995. When I first met Chris he was very quiet and shy, and would keep to himself. Soon we started hanging out, and then I quickly found out how incredibly easy he was to get along with. Chris and I had similar backgrounds. We were both raised in a home with blue-collared parents, and we both had three older sisters with a gap in the ages; so it was like having 4 moms when you were a kid. During college I was living at home on the family farm. Most weekends were spent hanging out with friends at whoever's parents were gone to the cottage Saturday. I started to invite Chris down to these get together's, and Chris fit in immediately. Everyone loved his happy-go-lucky attitude. He always had an incredible energy to him. Once you became a friend of Chris he would run through a wall for you if you asked him to. To this day friends that havent seen him in years still ask me about him - he was the type of guy you never forget even after meeting once. In college Chris was working part time at Shoppers Drug Mart in Waterloo, and he would often talk about the girls he worked with, but he was always too shy to approach them. However, as time passed in college he was opening to more people within the class, and by the second year everyone in the class was friends with Chris. I mean - how could you not be? The college version of Chris Grau was a gentle giant who LOVED beer; it must have been his German background. I remember on his birthday one year all the guys from the class wanted to take Chris to the campus bar for a drink - between classes. Chris agreed, and I dont think he made it back to class that day....and if I remember correctly, I think one of his sisters had to pick him up from the school. sorry about that. One of my fondest memories of Chris in college was playing squash with him. The college had a squash court on campus, and it was a good way to burn off some steam after class. For those that have never played squash, its basically 2 people in a small room hitting a rubber ball off a wall with a racquet. Overall, its a safe game to play, but with Chris it was a contact sport. Not so much between the people.... after all Chris was a gentle giant...but the walls of the court would take an absolute bruising. Chris would become ultra-competitive and throw himself across the court trying to get to the ball. The game wasnt about beating Chris, it was about how many times you could get him to fall over or dive head first into a wall. Like I said he would run through a wall if you asked him to, or if you played squash with him. About a year after graduation I started working at Karmax, and I think I got Chris in a couple years later after he finished his university course in Michigan. He was an instant hit at work as soon as he started. Chris worked at Karmax from 2000 to 2004, then returned to stay in 2007. That was the year my first child, Lincoln, was born. I remember Chris showing up at my desk one day, with his patented grin. He handed me an envelope, and when I opened it up I found the car brand lettering from a Lincoln vehicle. Chris said I should put it up on his door, since it was a unique name. I thought it was a great idea and asked Chris where he found the emblem. "You dont need to worry about that! I took care of it" he said with his grin. I dont know if he managed to find it in a scrap yard , or if somewhere in Kitchener there is a 50-thousand-dollar vehicle driving around missing its nameplate on the trunk. It is hard to describe how much love and respect people had for Chris at work. In fact, I dont think Chris even understood it. He was our go-to guy in the shipping office. No one knows that job as well as Chris, and he was always wanting to help train and mentor the new hires. We usually have 4-5 students on staff, and we always made sure that early on they worked on a shift that Chris was on to get 'the Grau' training. I was leaving work a couple months ago, and one of our newer students was walking in for afternoon shift. I stopped to ask how the previous day went, and his response was great Chris totally retrained me!. It was the first week Chris came back to work after caring for his father, and the first time he worked with the student - and already he had an immediate impact. Chris was very set in his ways but they were the right way to do something and we always wanted to adopt his style into the students. He would also come up with some unique sayings and quips that others would pick up on and use -I call them Grau-isms. We have a couple of them posted on the walls of the office. There are many people here from Karmax today, both past and present, and its a testament to the impact Chris had on people. Most of them sitting here today were trained by Chris, and I always hear the famous Grau-isms being used. Some have moved on to a larger role either within our company or somewhere else, but all of them have been touched by Chris. Finally, to Helga, Inga, and Monika your brother can never be replaced, but I want you to know you have all our support. Chris was indeed a family man, so the best way to honor him is by supporting the three of you during this difficult time.