Saturday marks the last time the Zellers Family Diner at the Billings Bridge Shopping Centre will offer liver and onions, a plate of french fries or its popular seniors’ dinner special for $6.79.

It’s also the last day the area’s seniors, some of them patrons of the popular diner for decades, will have this welcoming place to eat and catch up with old friends.

Friends like Donna Cummings, who’s worked at the diner for 12 years of her 15 working for Zellers.

“It’s our family here, people come in here and we treat them like family,” said Cummings, holding back tears. “They tell us their problems and we help them out as best we can … some of them just need somebody to talk to, so it’s devastating that it has to come to an end.”

In January 2011, American retail giant Target acquired the leases for 220 Zellers stores across Canada for $1.8 billion, from its parent, Hudson’s Bay Company.

While the Zellers at Billings Bridge closes in March 2013 to make way for Target’s entrance into the Ottawa retail market, the restaurant served its last meal today.

But behind the big money of this business takeover are priceless moments — stories of how a small, unassuming restaurant and its caring staff have brightened the lives of so many of its customers.

“It’s like saying goodbye to a family. It’s like home, a place that you belong to,” said Nicole Aranz who has been eating at the Family Diner – breakfast and lunch – for 20 years.

“You think in the morning, let’s go here for breakfast just for fun, just to go out. It’s sad.”

Cummings estimates that 80 per cent of the diner’s customers are seniors and of those who do frequent the restaurant, she and her colleagues almost always know what they want.

“We can practically tell what they’re going to eat, they have the same thing everyday,” she said.

Not only does retiree Lorraine Leblanc appreciate the staff catering to her special diet needs, but the ten-year customer says it's the caring and compassion shown to her and other customers that she'll miss the most.

“It’s not just personal needs health-wise, but it’s emotional as well. We can see when they need a boost and they can see when we need a boost,” Leblanc said of what have become friendships among customers and staff.

“I’ve seen a lot of people that come in here with sad faces and lonely and (the staff) will come up and give you a hug and peck on the cheek and say, ‘How’s it going?’ … and everybody leaves with a smile.”

Unfortunately for Cummings and the rest of the diner staff, they’ll have to look for new jobs starting next week.

“I haven’t written a resume in 20 years,” said Cummings. “I guess I’ll have to do that now.”