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Women's Friendships Spans The Decades

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By Cheryl  Bentley | The Suncoast News

Published: November 26, 2008

Sally Timpanelli and Judy Hess had already talked for about an hour during a meal at a New Port Richey restaurant.

But their husbands, Frank Timpanelli and Dean Hess, knew the women had just begun.

"After we leave here, one of them will call the other, and they will talk another couple of hours," Dean Hess predicted.

Sally and Judy are accustomed to the teasing, but that never stops their daily conversations. "Even though we see each other, there's always something to talk about," Sally noted.

From the start

Probably so. The women's relationship has spanned seven decades. It began in New York in 1938, when at Lynbrook Hospital in Oceanside, N.Y., Sally Hufnagel was born on Aug. 7 and Judy Erslev on Aug. 12. Their parents immediately hit it off, and evidently so did the baby girls. The girls' initial contact has developed into a friendship that has included husbands, children and grandchildren.

"I always remember her having blonde hair," Timpanelli says of Hess. The two families lived within a few blocks of each other in Oceanside. It was a safer, gentler era. "Kids were always out playing," Timpanelli remembers. "We thought nothing about riding our bicycles, playing hopscotch." She and Hess went to kindergarten together at Oceanside Grammar School No. 5 and also attended the same dancing school. When Hess was 9, her family moved to Birdsnest, Va., where her parents owned a motel.

But the families kept in touch. The Hufnagels always stopped off at the Erslev motel in Birdsnest on their frequent trips to Florida, and the Erslevs visited New York.

"Our parents had the same values," Timpanelli explains. "Morals were important. Education was important. They just hit it off."

Colorful memories

Hess has few memories of early years with her friend, but Timpanelli remembers coloring with Hess in a coloring book.

By then, their personalities had begun to develop. "Judy had the brains," Timpanelli laughs. "She was quieter. I guess you would call me outspoken."

Hess married first. Timpanelli attended her wedding, but Hess was unable to be at Timpanelli's wedding in 1962 because she was in Germany, where her husband Dean was stationed in the Air Force. Judy's parents, however, attended the wedding.

The two women's friendship deepened when they found themselves neighbors in the Spring Lakes Estate subdivision in New Port Richey. Their parents also lived in West Pasco and continued their friendship.

The Hesses paid $21,000 for their first house there, Hess remembers. She worked for the state as a counselor dealing with the elderly, disabled and food stamps. Timpanelli had her own hair salon.

Second generation

Their children - Michael and Melinda Hess and Kim, Frank and John Timpanelli - walked together to Elfers Elementary School, now known as Mittye P. Locke Elementary School. Their moms' friendship deepened.

They went for nightly walks with their dogs. "Unfortunately, at that time, we would both have our cigarettes," Timpanelli recalls. "We would have our walk and smoke." After their walks, the two night owls would talk on the phone until 2 a.m.

Their parents also continued their friendship. Hess's father Howard was the last parent to pass away. Timpanelli still remembers Hess's phone call informing her of his death. "She said, 'Sally, now we're orphans.'"

These days, the Timpanellis live in Zephyrhills and the Hesses in New Port Richey. The couples meet every month for lunch, and the two women talk on the phone daily. Seventy years and four generations of families provide much food for conversation, they say.

When asked separately what the other has meant to her, the two have identical answers: "Having a good friend."

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