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WATERLOO -- At Cindy Lou's Cafe, the bread is homemade, the bottomless cup of coffee costs $1 and waitress Dorothea Fischer calls the guys at the counter "the boys," even the ones in their 70s.

You can do that when you're 94.

There's an easy rhythm to the diner, but now change is afoot. After 32 years, Fischer has decided she's served her last Early Bird Breakfast Special.

Her retirement, announced on posters around the cafe, has disappointed the regulars, but they can hardly blame her.

"You hate to say it, but I guess it's time," said Jeff Otteson, a Waterloo High School math teacher who's been eating at the cafe for three decades.

Like many customers, Otteson, who exits the cafe with a "See ya, girlfriend" to Fischer, said he hopes to be alive at 94, let alone working. Fischer easily keeps pace with co-workers decades her junior, he said. "She leaves the young waitresses behind."

Fischer spent most of her life as a dairy farmer, then became a cook and a waitress at an age when most people are winding down. Her husband, Lester, had fallen ill, and the couple needed money.

At 61, she got a job at the diner, known then as The Iron Kettle. She's worked for seven different owners.

"It's always kind of a joke that Dorothea comes with the building," said co-worker Amanda Hostetler.

Fischer worked her last shift Friday, which also happened to be her 94th birthday. Widowed, she still drives a car and lives on her own, but she said her hearing has started to slip, and she wouldn't mind sleeping in a little.

Her usual shift was 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. three mornings a week. She also baked the cafe's cake doughnuts a couple of times a week.

"Maybe I'll be sorry I quit," Fischer said, as she rang up a bill Friday. "When you're alone, you don't know what else to do. You'd rather work than sit home."

Customers left greeting cards with their tips Friday, and stories circulated about her wit. Like the time Earl got a plate of over-easy eggs and claimed he'd ordered them scrambled. "She picked up a fork and scrambled them right on his plate," Hostetler said.

Owner Cindy Lou Butzine said she knew this day would come but is still surprised. Fischer's mind is sharp -- she computes sales tax in her head -- and no one is more dependable. Her stamina awes people.

"We don't want her to leave," said Butzine, who held an open house in Fischer's honor Saturday. "We always told her that if anything every happened to her, we'd stuff her and stand her by the front door to greet everybody."

Some speculate she really won't retire. Laughs broke out Friday when someone suggested she might get the waitressing itch again.

"Oh my, I hope I don't cause as much commotion as Brett Favre," Fischer said.

"Dorothea will come back for $27 million," joked customer Dave Gorder.