On the Bright Side: Hamden woman and years-long friend exchange same birthday card for decades

For 62 years, Sandra Cole, a Hamden resident, has been exchanging the same birthday card with her decades-long friend Anne Russell, née Edwards, who lives in the town of Cicero, near Syracuse.

The pair met because Cole, 85, was from the same town, Bovina, that Russell’s future husband, David Russell, was from. Anne Russell, 82, began coming over with him in the early 1960s, and she and Russell got to know each other, soon becoming close friends.