Paradise Café

With the death first of his wife and then of his best friend, David Robert Bainbridge has lost his moorings. He returns to the place where they all met, and settling at an outdoor table in his favorite café in Berkeley, California, he takes a yellow pad and ballpoint pen from his bag and begins to write. He delves through layers of memory, sifting and searching for a meaning to sustain him through his losses.

The people in my life whom I have loved are all dead. I am alone. I am on the brink. I am in my third and final act. I thought if I came back to this café, Paradise Café for God's sake, and claimed sanctuary and sat down and, with brutal self-truthfulness, remembered my life, I might be saved. Saved from what, I don't know. Saved for what? I also don't know. But saved, nonetheless.

But life intrudes. The child who demands his attention shows him the opening into a new life where old loves are deepened through new ones and people are waiting to be called by name.

Dale Rominger has been a minister, educator, speaker, world traveler, and consultant. He has traveled extensively assisting in development projects and creating education and encounter programs with international partners. Now retired, Dale lives in Seattle with his wife, Roberta, reading, writing, and cooking.