Big Bear Lake, CA 11/26/14 – Last night, Cheri Haggerty Lawrence, Big Bear Lake City Clerk and wife of City Public Works Director David Lawrence, and her newborn son’s life ended tragically. Events began on Tuesday evening just after 5pm, when Cheri collapsed in her office at City Hall. Emergency CPR was performed almost immediately followed by transport by Big Bear Fire Department paramedics to the emergency room at the Bear Valley Community Hospital. Jeff Mathieu, City Manager, with deep sorrow, expressed that fellow City employees, friends and family along with her husband David, agonized as emergency measures were taken to save both mother and child who was delivered by emergency c-section at the ER. Neither Cheri or baby Declan survived. “This is a shock to the entire City of Big Bear Lake family” said Jeff Mathieu, “it is impossible right now to comprehend that Cheri and her baby are gone. In so many ways she represented the future of this City. The loss of someone so young at the peak of life is not easy to comprehend. The shock of this has left our small tightly knit community stunned”.
Cheri was the highly visible face of the City workforce serving as Public Information Officer, Intergovernmental Relations Manager, webmaster and City Clerk. She usually had a hand in every major community event, including the upcoming annual Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony. She was very active in the community for fund raisers, School District educational projects, and youth ski team events. For pleasure she could be seen her riding a bicycle, enjoying team activities at the Bowling Barn or traveling with David to Las Vegas. She completed his undergraduate work at Cal State Fullerton and Masters Degree from Chapman University.
Jeff Mathieu added, “Our thoughts and prayers are with Cheri’s daughter Kaelee, son Aiden, husband David, parents Bob & Peggy Frost and their family members at this sorrowful time”.
