Daniel and Cherie's Story: Lives Entwined, by Debra Moon

 Lives Entwined

Daniel and Cherie’s Fire Story

by Debra Moon

Note: Daniel is Daniel Verner, a renown local visual artist and musician.

    Daniel and Cherie lived next door to each other in Mountain View Estates. He was at Space 51, and she was at Space 52. They became friends over time, and then a couple. At the time of the fire, Cherie was working in Medford. Daniel was at home at Mountain View Estates. He grabbed a painting and a couple of his many musical instruments. Daniel had been an artist and a performing musician for many years. He didn’t take too much because he believed he would be coming back. Even though things looked dangerous, and the fire was advancing, nobody knew where to go, and there had not yet been any evacuation notices. 

    Daniel headed for Phoenix to the home of friends where he and Cherie met up. Cherie’s daughter, in the Quiet Village neighborhood of Ashland, had been evacuated and came to her mother’s home in Talent. She found people evacuating there, so she grabbed her brother’s guitar and a few mementos of him. Her brother, Cherie’s son, had been killed at a young age in an incident in Ashland when he was walking home from work at Shop N Kart, so the daughter decided to collect a few things of her brother’s, from her mom’s house just in case. Cherie was not able to make it back to her manufactured home, in Talent, from Medford . She was very grateful to her daughter for stopping and take time to gather a few things of her son’s. The daughter proceeded to Phoenix, where she had to evacuate again. 

    The couple did have to evacuate Phoenix as the fire advanced. They ended up in Grants Pass, temporarily. From there they called the Mountain View Park Manager. They knew that the park had basically burned down but that 20 homes or so were still standing. They hoped that their homes had been spared. When they tried to find out, they got the wrong information, and so when they discovered their homes were gone it was doubly devastating. 

    A few days after the fire, they returned to Mountain View Estates. They were each searching for some remains of things related to their loved ones. Daniel was looking for special ashes, which were from the cremation of his wife who had died from cancer the previous year. While looking through the ashes, which were all that was left of his home, he realized that the metal from several sculptures he’d had on his property was just gone…missing. Someone had looted. The ashes of his wife were not identifiable amongst the other ashes. Meanwhile Cherie was searching for anything else she could find that was evidence of her son. 

    While there, they encountered FEMA workers who were there with a cadaver dog searching for human remains. FEMA was sympathetic to their mission, and they actually helped Daniel locate his wife’s ashes. Cherie and Daniel also encountered reporters from the New York Times who wrote about the couple in an article published on September 16, 2020. Cherie did not want to be interviewed by the New York Times reporters, but they were very sensitive to what she and Daniel were experiencing, so she did consent. Later other police appeared and threatened to arrest them for being on a crime site, but they were rescued by FEMA.

    Thus far we have covered the destruction and devastation of Daniel and Cherie’s homes. 

Here is the story of their recovery.

    Daniel and Cherie stayed in an Ashland hotel for a month. Then they moved to a Phoenix Air B& B for five months. Cherie’s insurance company paid well and was easy to work with. Even though they had lived in the same location, had about the same size and value of property, and suffered the same losses, Daniel’s’ insurance paid only a fraction of the payments that Cherie’s insurance paid and were difficult to deal with. So, they had obstacles. But they did overcome them. Together, they found a new home. While walking around Phoenix one day, they saw a home for sale. Figuring this was their destiny, they investigated and were able to buy the home with their combined insurance benefits. The owners were happy to sell to fire victims and were super easy to deal with.

    Daniel, who had lived for 50 years in Ashland working at the university for 25 years and another 25 years as a production printer for the Ashland Tidings, had always been an artist and musician on the side. He had saved his computer from the fire, on which he had photos of all his artwork, hundreds of paintings. He was able to make high quality reproductions, and their new home in Phoenix has a large percentage of this artwork on display on the walls. They are too incredible to even describe. So authentic to the life of the persons in the portraits, so vibrant and so expressive. His art is superbly high quality. Cherie’s creativity has leaned more toward writing and words. Some of her writings are mounted on the walls and they are very impressive as well. 

    They have created a home that is so full of life and representative of their loves and talents. Seeing their new home, no one would guess that they had been deprived of all their belongings, and their places of dwelling, only a short time ago. Together they scoured estate sells, garage sales and other places. They have found, painted, and arranged furniture, and made a place truly their own. It has taken hard work and perseverance to rebuild what they had before, only now it is better because they have combined their lives together. Their home is filled with their creations, with creativity and warmth. 

    That is the physical side of recovery from the trauma of the fire. Emotionally, there is still healing taking place. Both Cherie and Daniel experienced multiple blows of loss in their lives in the last few years. Their love for each other is clearly present and a palpable driving force in the reclamation of their lives. Consideration for each other is a strong cornerstone as well. Forgiveness for whatever forces caused them their losses is also evident. They move on a path of positivity daily, even as they pass through periods of grieving. These are tender, sensitive people who are salvaging their lives after the crisis of the Almeda Fire.

    Cherie says, “We are like the three-legged, one-eyed dog named Lucky.” 

Note: Another article was written about the couple in the Mail Tribune, the Medford newspaper, on October 25, 2020.