Today I saw an article about the Artists Row, Sunday at the Public Market. And they featured the work of a friend of mine, and 19th Ward Resident. It reminded me of our friendship and how it got started. So I thought I'd share a great 19th Ward Connection.
When Anthony and I first moved to Rochester 5 years ago, I set out to find and connect with other artists in the area. One of the first people I found was an artist named Rachael. She had this wonderful blog, she worked for a local art gallery and seemed like a really awesome and put together person. At first we only communicated online. I would comment on a blog, and she would kindly reply, and comment on my blog. We did this off and on for several years, but never really connecting out in the "real" world. Little did we know that a tragic event on Thurston Road would bring us together.

It was a day or two after the 4th of July, 2008 and the shooting of Tracy T. Walker on Thurston Road at Anthony Street. It was one of the first major crimes to have happened near our house, since we moved to the 19th Ward. And I was frightened, angry, sad, mad, you name it. Well while reading my email that day, I came across one of Rachael's blog postings. The title, "Bang Bang Bang". I thought it was a posting about the fourth and fireworks and fun, and for the most part it was. But then she mentioned the shooting on Thurston Road, "This morning we read in the newspaper about a young man shot in the head in the city, not far from where we mow our lawn and hang our flower baskets." I stopped and thought, near their house? Hey it happened near OUR house too. Being shook up about the shooting, and looking for solace I quickly sent off an email to Rachael.Connecting over the horrible incident, I mentioned that I thought we lived near each other. Sure enough, come to find out, her and her husband live almost right behind us on the next street over. But the story just gets started there. About a week later Anthony and I decided to have John and Rachael over for a front porch meet your new neighbor get together. Over some wonderful black bean salsa, some nice cold beer, and great conversation, our worlds got smaller. We discover I know John from doing some volunteering while working at Starbucks, Anthony and Rachael share a birthday as well as John and I have a birthday the same week. There were stories of Weddings connections to Anthony's hometown, and talk about how our new friendship started by that first email to a blog 4 years earlier. Over the last year, our worlds have continued to grown smaller, through discovering of mutual friends, and stories of the past. I'm really glad to know and have such great friends, that literally live in my backyard!

Rachaels Blog