Years ago, though it’s hard to imagine today, Republican and Democratic senators used to sit at the same table to share a meal in the Senate Dining Room. They would cross the aisle just to talk to beloved waitress Tina Panetta, an ebullient Italian mother and grandmother.

“We talked like family, like brother and sister,” Panetta, now 95, recalls of her 23-year career serving politicians and their guests — celebrities like Dick Clark, Joe DiMaggio, Don Rickles and Bob Newhart. “For me, those people didn’t look like senators; they looked like a brother and sister,” she said. “I remember everybody. They were so kind; I got so much joy” from the job.