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Only Chris And his tremendous faith in the God, could have Heavy metal playing in a church seem appropriate.
Christopher Dennis Payne- CHRIS, was born at Mercy hospital in San Diego, at 9:01 pm, on September 23rd, 1971, to Dennis and Ann Payne. He was their first born and he had the run of the place until his little brother Adam was born, ten years later.
From a very early age, Chris was a feisty little guy and he had more than his fair share of obstacles to overcome. When he was one, he was reaching for the milk as his Mom was cleaning him up, and fell out of his high chair, landing awkwardly and breaking his leg. This put him in a full length cast for months.
He suffered from Asthma his entire life, and he had to have terribly painful ear tubes put in when he was little, that caused severe hearing loss in one ear.
Then when he was three, he was jumping on a bed and managed to launch himself off the bed but his foot got stuck and he broke that same let again.
For such a young guy, he sure went through a lot.
Despite all of his ailments or maybe because of them, Chris had tremendous resolve and when he got something in his craw, there was no letting it go.
For example: His first trip to Disneyland. The night before his parents were going to take the then 3-year-old Chris, they told him all about Disneyland. He got so excited, he wanted to go immediately. He was very insistent, finally, after promising to take him as soon as they woke up the next day, his parents convinced him to go to bed early.
Chris dutifully went to bed very early and all was fine until 3 am when his father felt a presence next to him and woke up. There stood Chris, huge grin on his face, fully dressed as he said; “Is it time yet?”.
From a young age, Chris was very serious about rides too. His parents took him to a park that had a real merry-go-round and they were trying to get a picture of him smiling, while he rode a pony, but the more they tried to get him to smile, the more upset he became. When they asked him why, He said sternly, “you can’t smile, you have to be careful to steer your pony.
Also, he loved fireworks and his Dad knew it. One day, his Dad came home for lunch to find Chris in his favorite chair and he knew he wouldn’t give it up easily, so his Dad went to the window and said: “Hey look at the fireworks” Chris immediately bolted from the chair to the window and his Dad stole his seat.
After that, his Dad would tease him about “day time fireworks”, never letting him forget it. Years later, Chris did end up having the last laugh, when they were at an Aztec game, the Aztecs scored a touchdown and when they did, they set off day time fireworks. Chris was vindicated and they laughed about it every time the Aztecs scored.
Chris could dish it out too. For example, when Adam was still a baby, and Chris was 10 or 11, Chris said to his parents. Nice job naming him Adam Payne,
YOU KNOW,
A Dam Payne. They didn’t know.
Chris really loved sports. Unfortunately, due to his severe asthma, there weren’t many sports he could play.
However, Chris found a home playing soccer. Even with his asthma, he could play goalie, and he was pretty darn good. He played on teams for years and he had hopes of playing in high school, but he broke his arm blocking a goal, and missed his opportunity to make the team. So, he hung up his soccer cleats and got very into music.
He played the trumpet for a few years and when he was in his late teens, he was in a band called “The Midway” as the sound guy. They played together for a couple of years, until the band eventually broke up.
Chris and his brother Adam were 10 years apart, but they were very close.
Some of both Chris and Adam’s favorite memories are the weekends Adam would spend at Chris’s first apartment. Chris was 18 and Adam was 8.
Chris and Adam would eat junk food, while they played video games, watched movies, and listened to music. Chris always took great care of his little brother too. So much so, that when there was an earthquake one weekend that Adam was at the apartment, Chris was concerned that the apartment wasn’t safe and he couldn’t wake Adam up. Panicked, Chris grabbed Adam and carried him out of the apartment. Adam woke up as he was being carried and Chris said; “Don’t worry, I got you”.
They both loved the San Diego Chargers and shared many a game together. Chris was absolutely heartbroken that the Chargers left San Diego and if there is a silver lining, it is that Chris never had to see one LA Charger game.
Chris took Adam to his first concert, which was Aerosmith.
Over the years, Adam and Chris saw numerous concerts together, often making road trips to see their favorite bands. They even went to London to together to see Iron Maiden. Which they both described as their favorite trip together.
Chris Graduated high school in 1989. Right out of high school, he went on a trip to Italy for a few weeks.
Once Chris returned from Italy, he had various jobs including 7/11, until he began working as electrician’s apprentice, while he went to school to be an electrician.
Five years later, he graduated and began working as Journeyman electrician. He worked at it for a few years but he found that he really didn’t like the whole job site situation.
So, he got a job at Home Depot, in you guessed it, the electrical department, and after a while, he moved into customer service, where he worked his way into management. A few years later, he got a better job offer, so he left Home Depot and went to his last job at The Hartford.
When we were kids, we’d get together for family gatherings and sooner or later all of us Cuz’s, would end up sneaking off to someone’s bedroom to play a game we called “Blind Man’s bluff” I don’t really remember what the rules where I just remember, that we would turn off the lights and have a massive pillow fight.
Chris would attack everyone, relentlessly. He was so tough, he’d just keep going and he got hit in the face, a lot because he was younger and smaller than most of us and when he got hit, he’d say “Oh mah face” like that would make us stop hitting him in the face, which of course it didn’t.
Eventually we would be found out by our parents and he would be told he needed to take a break before he got too worked up with his Asthma. This always really upset him, but he couldn’t help it, Asthma side lined him a lot.
Years later, Chris still said “Oh Mah face” to get a rise out of his Cuz’s. It was special to us. Which probably doesn’t sound very special, beating the crap out of someone smaller than you, but that’s the way we roll in this family.
Chris was always artsy too. He liked to draw and make Fractal art on his computer.
He made some amazing stuff and he was really good at it. The band “Journey” liked his scarab art so much, in 2003 they bought it and made it their Red 13, CD album cover.
Over the years, Chris continued to make art. Including, tributes to people and t-shirts for Iron Maiden and Caching Cousins. If you’d like to see it, he still has some of his art up on deviantart.com.
Chris loved music. In particular, he loved “Iron Maiden”. He loved them so much, he followed them all over the world including to Canada, Mexico, and the UK.
At Iron Maiden concerts, his favorite place to be was right up against the barrier, which is as close as you can get to the band and they call that “Rocking the rails.” Recently, he posted on Facebook that he had seen Iron Maiden more than 100 times. He was a moderator for the Iron Maiden’s fan club. They called him Khan and he was well known among their members. Iron Maiden fans have a saying, that they say to each other which is; “Up the Irons”, It’s sort of a salute or a greeting. So, if you see people post that on his Facebook page, that is what it means.
Did you know that Chris was an early adopter of Geocaching. He hid his first geocache in his front yard. Years later, I mentioned that I had started geocaching and it was on. Chris, Adam, and I would go on geocaching expeditions. We liked making geocaches so much that we started an Etsy store called “Caching Cousins” and we had a fair amount of success for a couple of years, but we discovered we liked making custom geocaches but we didn’t like running a store, so we retired it. However, there are still several of our caches hidden all over the world.
Chris got into photography about 10 years ago or so. He had his first photograph published in a magazine in 2012 and he was very proud of it. Several years running, including this year, Chris had multiple photos make it into the Del Mar Fair, where he won awards.
In 2011, He got into writing and making films and helped found Grudio Pictures. You may not know this, but he loved writing as much as he loved shooting movies.
He was a jack of all trades on set. He could do it all and he would do whatever was needed. He even had a cameo in “All bets are off”
AND we were a several days into shooting “The Highway” when one of our actors dropped out. I asked Chris if he thought he could play the part of a main character in the film. He was a little nervous about it, but he knew we needed it, so he agreed to do it. Would you believe, he played the part so well, it was as if it was written for him.
He really got a kick out of it too. In fact, he was considering doing more acting, if the opportunity arose.
I know, I speak for a lot of folks when I say, Chris will forever more, be the wind beneath Grudio Picture’s wings.
When I was writing this, I reached out to several friends and family members asking them if they had a favorite thing about Chris and without exception, every single one them, said he was “So kind and so funny”.
In life, Chris was one of the most thoughtful and kind people I have ever known. He was always trying to make people feel good, feel better about themselves, or feel loved. If he found out you collected something, or liked a certain thing, he would go out of his way to find it for you, and surprise you with it.
Chris was extremely witty, and not just a little corny too. He could quote lines from movies with the best of them, and no matter what he was doing, he did it with humor. Even serious stuff, he would find a way to make it funny. And he had the most infectious laugh, you couldn’t help but laugh with him.
When people die we say, “He is no longer in pain” or “He’s no longer suffering” But Chris wasn’t in pain and he wasn’t suffering. He was in the prime of his life, doing what he loved, when his heart stopped.
To us, this is a terrible tragedy and we are struggling with our loss, but to Chris, a man of tremendous faith, this was all in God’s plan and I know, he is happily looking down on us right now and if he could say something to us, I think it would go something like this.
My dearest friends and family, I’m okay, please do not cry and try not to be sad. Live your life the way God intended you to, in happiness and love.
“I will be Rocking the rails of your life, and cheering you on, until we meet again. So up the irons, may the force be with you, and God Bless you all.”
I love you Cuz!
My Dearest Cuz, 06/17/19
Not a day goes by that I don’t think of you.
We were at Disneyland’s new Star Wars Land and I just knew you were at my side the whole time.
Miss you every day.
Love your
Cuz
Why you make me cry? 🙁 Miss him so much.