Yesterday, our neighbors Christine and Christopher Shorr of Poplar Lawn left for new adventures North of the Mason Dixon line. As a friend, I will miss their overwhelming sense of generosity and kindness, their creativity, and their incomprable entertaining. As a member of this fair city, I feel their loss in the myriad projects they have put into place, the connections they have made between people, and the organizations they have served, even founded.

When I first came to Petersburg five years ago, Christine, then president of the Historic Poplar Lawn Association, was one of the first people that I met. She welcomed my overwhelmed self, a complete stranger whose husband had not yet moved to join me in our monstrosity-project of a house, into her home to show me photos of their house when they started working on it. She encouraged me. She made me an instant friend.

That house, where a good portion of Petersburg’s residents have spent countless wonderful hours eating amazing food, imbibing, dancing, and laughing—always laughing—was condemned when they purchased it. Every beautiful detail was lovingly restored by them, eclectically decorated. It became a house full of life and love. That house was where Sycamore Rouge started, people brought together by Christopher before there was ever a building or funding. Sycamore Rouge started with Christopher’s idea and was a passion: it was exciting to watch the entire entity grow from nothing, to be a part of it, to have new people move to Petersburg and get involved because they were brought together by these kinetic people, their home, their projects.

Even in their departure, Christopher and Christine were bringing people together: they made sure that the buyer of their home met much of the neighborhood before they left. Our new neighbor is lovely. She will make a great addition to our community, and she promises to keep up the great parties in a house that just seems to be built for entertaining.

And so—with a sad heart for myself and my community, but with a joyful one for them and their newest adventures—I wish our friends well and thank them for helping Poplar Lawn and Petersburg on its way. Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where the Shorrs are headed, is so very, very fortunate.