Editor, Manteca Bulletin, When my wife Cherie and I moved here in 1998 we did so because we wanted our children to grow up in a wholesome environment away from the lifestyle of the Bay Area. We had heard that Lathrop/Manteca was a family community and we wanted to become a part of it. We never fully realized how good a community it is until the death of our oldest son, Christopher Berlin Gardner, on July 1, 2012.