Das Cafe is a cute little German restaurant in Spring City. I know… right?! What a funny place to find a little German restaurant. Mark and I went there several times. They have really good hot chocolate. A couple years ago, while attempting to think of a fun date together, we decided to go to Spring City and have a mug of hot chocolate. Unfortunately the cafe closes at 3:00 pm and we had to come up with a different activity.

You may recall my birthday celebration in which we enjoyed choosing our cemetery plots? Well, once again we missed the 3:00 pm deadline. Fortunately it turns out that Spring City has another eating establishment which we had overlooked, or perhaps it is new. I don’t know the name of the place, but it is a hamburger and ice cream joint. Here is what I do know – that day in April 2023 I discovered this delicious hamburger:

The name of the burger eludes me, but I call it the Triple Bacon burger. It boasts three types of bacon which I believe includes traditional bacon, shredded bacon and bacon jam. Maybe it is called the Porker or the Big Pig? It doesn’t matter. It is really tasty. I have enjoyed this treat three times now, but with Mark gone it may be awhile before I can stomach it…

With Mark gone my visits to Spring City have a new emphasis which is, of course, visiting Mark! Thus far I have visited twice and it has been lovely. I was concerned that I needed to be alone for my first visit, as though I was going to end up curled in a ball on the grass or something. Instead I took my sister and we have a nice evening together. There were a few tears but mostly I felt very peaceful and I could envision myself resting next to him. That may sound morbid but it wasn’t the case at all. I brought the few remaining funeral flowers and laid them at his grave marker. (I love that his marker has his photo – good job Walker Mortuary.) I am getting very close to being able to order a headstone for us.

Kimberly joined me for our second visit. Perhaps a bit more emotional but still pleasant. This time we brought the few remaining flowers from my niece’s wedding. (Perhaps I should buy fresh flowers once in awhile…) We didn’t have a way to dispose of the dead flowers that remained (so much for weekly cleanup) so we just stuck the new in with the old. I kind of liked the effect. Our hot summer day suddenly turned cold and it rained on us. Fortunately we had blankets in the back of the car.

Here is something I liked about both of my visits. I wrote earlier that I had liked the Spring City cemetery since the time that my grandmother was buried and an eagle swooped down over the ceremony. Grandpa said it was a good omen. As Lori and I visited the cemetery that evening a hawk called to us and then flew in a majestic circle around us. On my second visit it did rain, but I looked up and saw a beautiful rainbow right at his grave.

Visiting Mark is even better than eating a Big Pig Porker Triple Bacon Burger! What is more… I believe that my circling hawk and my rainbow are good omens. All is well with Mark.