After 51 years as a cashier and line cook at a popular burger restaurant Lynn Outerbridge has decided to retire.

Ms Outerbridge, 69, received several farewell gifts and teary goodbyes yesterday on her last day working at Byrdie’s Cafe on Parsons Road, Pembroke.

“Aunt Lynn” was even visited by several Members of Parliament, who stopped by to give her their well wishes and they honoured her during the House of Assembly in the morning.

Ms Outerbridge said: “As soon as people found out, they told me I can’t retire.”

She added: “They all came by and said hello to me and how much they’ll miss me, then gave me hugs and took pictures.

“I love my customers – I’m really going to miss them.”

Ms Outerbridge, who lives down the street from Byrdie’s, said that many of the politicians who came to visit were regular customers, whom she had served since before they started their political careers.

She added that regulars at the family-run restaurant offered her flowers, balloons and even a new mobile phone to help her stay in touch with everybody.

Ms Outerbridge said: “All of my customers love me – they all come looking for me and when I’m not working they ask, ‘where’s Lynn?’

“People really like the hamburgers, they like the chicken burgers, they like the beef pie and they love my love.”

Ms Outerbridge started working at Byrdie’s as a teenager when it was a few hundred yards farther east on Parsons Road and offered a limited amount of groceries.

She said that she watched many members of the community grow up at the restaurant, including her most recent boss, Neilson DeGraff, who had been in primary school when she started working.

Ms Outerbridge added that she stayed at Byrdie’s because of “the love of the place”.

She added: “I'm not the kind of person to jump from here to there – and I like cooking hamburgers.”

Despite her love of the job, Ms Outerbridge said that she looked forward to retirement, particularly so that she could relax with her family.

She added that she will likely find herself back at the restaurant to say hello to her former co-workers and regulars.

Mr DeGraff, who took over the restaurant after the death of his father, Wilfred, said that Ms Outerbridge was family to him.

He said that Ms Outerbridge had been at the restaurant for so long that she felt like a sister. Mr DeGraff said: “She’s the type of person who would give you anything.

“I remember we had a customer whose husband passed away, so she would get up every Saturday morning on her day off, pick this lady up and take her grocery shopping.”

He added: “She would come in on her day off just to say ‘hi’ and if she saw that we were busy she would say ‘let me help you out’ and just jump in.

“That’s just the way she is – she’s just a giving person.”