Date night with my fiance as a tongue cancer survivor ","

Donald and I go back to the same restaurant everytime we’re in San Francisco. A little Italian place called “Tiramisu”. The first time we went to SF together a regular at my bar mentioned it was somewhere she loved and I knew little about it but we went anyway. It was in an alley in the financial district and there was hardly anyone in it. I wondered if we’d made a mistake. But we were there already and it was getting late so we stuck it out. That first time, I’ll never forget how dazzled we ended up being. The server was an Italian immigrant who has worked there for 20 years, the wine was flowing, the food was incredible; and the staff did everything to make you feel like you had been transported to their cafe on the other side of the world. We left with full belly’s and happy hearts. We’ve been back every trip since. We’ve brought Donald’s kids. We’ve cancelled other plans just to make our ritual stop at what seems like the best kept secret in the city. This trip, was the first time since my recovery. The restaurant had moved a few doors down. We got there late, when the dinner crowd had cleared. And we yet again, wondered if we had made a mistake of not going somewhere more trendy or something we’d never had before. The new location didn’t hold the same memories or the same smells. But we were there and we were hungry. Not even a few minutes after finding our table, did the same server that had taken care of us all the years before appear with a giant smile. It took 2 sips of a cocktail and a single bite of carpaccio to know we were in the right place. We dined like royalty, the only ones in the place. Food and wine and laughter, just like we remembered. Sometimes, in this chapter of life the memories are painful. It’s hard to revisit old places and do things we’ve done before without feeling like now… I’m missing something. But not at Tiramisu. It felt like going back to a warm place. A place where everything we went through existed, but it wasn’t the whole story. The years before, during and after.. are. Love yall. #eatwithme #tonguecancer #cancersurvivor #italianfoodforthesoul #tiramisu