A dear colleague and friend died last night. It was shocking and unexpected to hear the news, even though he had been struggling with a rare debilitating disease for many months. Christian was the most alive person I have ever met. He would always greet you with genuine enthusiasm and delight, full of ideas and wit and ready to whoop with laughter at the slightest excuse. He inspired me to want to work for him and always gave me reason to value my efforts. I think he invested himself in every single moment of every day, the way we are all supposed to, and even when fate turned his body into an unresponsive machine, his smile lit up the room and his greeting was as warm as always. Just when you thought life was ordinary, he would start to talk about possibilities and you would feed on the adrenalin and the confidence and leave recharged and full of purpose. I will miss him very much.
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In Memory of Christian Gerard2 comments to In Memory of Christian Gerard |
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Copyright © 2012 Lynda Sez - All Rights Reserved |
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I only met Christian a handful of times, but I couldn’t agree more about his infectiously enthusiastic energy. And well said.
This is such sad news. I met Christian in 1997 when I worked for Levi’s. I think we were one of his first really big accounts. He was awesome! He made me laugh every day. He’d call just to check in even though there was no business to discuss. He was just this really great guy!
I remember one day he called and made small talk for a while then asked, like it’s an everyday sort of thing, “So Cath – when you’re cooking rice is it supposed to look soupy or thick or somewhere in between? Is there some kinda trick to rice making??” I burst out laughing and tried to figure out what he had done. Seems he thought cooking rice would be just like cooking pasta so he tossed his cup of rice into a giant pot of boiling water and then planned to drain it. Christian thought it would be easier to call me for directions than to read the package. Too funny!
I am so sorry to his family and friends for this terrible loss. Christian and I were only in touch maybe once a year or so during the holidays, but the past two Christmases have been difficult in my family and I never e-mailed him nor did I realize I hadn’t heard from him. When I tried to look up his e-mail on the Webfeat site I realized something was wrong and only found out when I googled him.
I don’t know what the illness was or how this happened, but Christian, you will be sorely missed.