CLARKS SUMMIT, Pa. — Inside the Sunrise Cafe in Clarks Summit, customers fill the seats as they have for decades, but it's more than just good food that keeps them coming back.
"She knew your name when you walked through the door," Samantha Weaver said.
Dawn Soboleski was always a familiar face behind the counter. Customers quickly turned into regulars and regulars into friends.
"We started coming here about 15 years ago, 16 years ago. And she needed someone to waitress, and I worked here for about 11 years," Stephanie Wolfe said.
Over the years, they were more like family.
"Dawn said to me, 'Hey, Lynn is going to sell the restaurant.' I said, 'You're going to buy it, and I'll do whatever I can to help you be successful,'" Weaver recalled.
They kept that promise through the 23 years that Dawn owned the Sunrise Café, through COVID, when they handed out hundreds of free meals.
"People would just drive down the road, stop, 'How many meals do you need? One, two, four,' and we just handed out meals every week for how many months?" Wolfe said.
Through Dawn's illness, she never slowed down.
"She would just go up and put money down for all the EMS workers, police, fire, and ambulance. They would go in, and they would never pay for a meal. It's covered," Weaver said.
Just three days after her passing, her friends returned to the place they had come to for decades and sat at that very same table.
"That's what she would've done. She would've kept going. She would've muddled through."
The seats are once again filled at the Sunrise Café, all thanks to Dawn.