Print

Email story

Comment

Letter to the editor

Companions in grief

Co-workers share the pain of losing the men they loved in a drowning accident.

By ELENA LESLEY, Times Staff Writer
Published October 5, 2007

Jacqueline Chambers-Puricelli, right, with sister Judy Johnson. Chambers-Puricelli's husband was found dead Oct. 1.
	[Douglas R. Clifford | Times]

ADVERTISEMENT [Linda Starks] Linda Starks poses with her boyfriend Daniel Propes in 2005. [Jacqueline Chambers-Puricelli] Dale Puricelli shows off a large-mouth bass which he caught near his home in Holiday.

TARPON SPRINGS - As searchers combed the cloudy waters of Lake Tarpon on Monday, Jacqueline Chambers-Puricelli and Linda Starks waited together for word of the men they loved.

First, searchers found Chambers-Puricelli's husband, Dale Puricelli, at the bottom of the Lake Tarpon outfall canal, tangled in fishing line.

The news stunned the two women.

"We just held each other," said Starks, 48.

Over the next five or six hours, Chambers-Puricelli, 53, refused to leave Starks waiting on the banks of the canal alone. She stayed until they knew the fate of Starks' fiance, Daniel Propes, who was discovered in a thickly vegetated section of the canal.

"Jackie's question had been answered," said Chambers-Puricelli's sister, Judy Johnson. "She needed to wait there until Linda's question was answered, too."

Though the women hadn't known each other very long, both immediately knew that day would forge a permanent bond between them. On Sunday morning, they were two women who worked together in a doctor's office, waiting for their loved ones to return from a fishing trip. By Monday afternoon, they were companions in grief.

"We both still are and forever will be in this together," Chambers-Puricelli said.

"If Jackie needs me, I'll be there," said Starks, still visibly shaken Thursday. "She lost the man she loved."

Chambers-Puricelli has worked in the doctor's office for eight years and is now the office manager. Starks started as a receptionist two months ago. They knew immediately they had to get their guys together.

Dale Puricelli and Dan Propes were both men's men. They loved fishing, woodworking and the outdoors.

"I thought they'd hit it off," Starks said.

Chambers-Puricelli said her husband was an unpretentious, "this is who I am - take it or leave it" kind of guy.

Originally from Massachusetts, Mr. Puricelli moved to Florida about 20 years ago with his first wife, Carol Birdyshaw. They had a daughter, Erin, who died of juvenile diabetes in 1999.

In the late 1980s, he was hired as a manual machinist at Tampa Bay Machining, where he would work for the next two decades and earn a reputation as a skilled and diligent employee.

Chambers-Puricelli met her husband through mutual friends but didn't start dating until after a chance encounter in 1998. A few years later, they married.

The two were perfect for each other.

"Dale had a lot of accomplishments ... but the biggest accomplishment he had was loving my sister. He did that so well," Johnson said. "People go through a lifetime looking, searching. She's one of the lucky ones."

"We fit," Chambers-Puricelli said quietly in agreement. "We fit."

While they shared some interests, Mr. Puricellialso was passionate about his own pursuits.

He devoted long hours to woodworking and built everything from the couple's backyard deck to their entertainment center. A nature lover, he created an oasis behind their Holiday Lake Estates home.

"He had a desire to be outside all the time, close to the water, on the water," Chambers-Puricelli said.

That was a quality the two men shared. Mr. Propes, a career carpenter from Michigan, was an avid hunter, fisherman and swimmer.

"He would be the first one to jump off a bridge or a pier," Starks said.

The pair went to high school together in Flint, Mich., but didn't know each other very well and went on to have separate lives. Like the Puricellis, they reconnected after a chance encounter.

About seven years ago, her dad and his mom were both hospitalized in Flint. Mr. Propes and Starks locked eyes across the intensive care unit waiting room.

"We're soul mates," Starks said. "We were two lost souls when we found each other and we made it through together."

Before too long, Mr. Propes moved to Florida and the two became inseparable. Starks joked that she even made him accompany her to get manicures and pedicures.

At first, Starks' dad was wary of her "long haired" boyfriend, but Mr. Propes earned his respect. As the older man grew weaker, Mr. Propes would carry him into the local dialysis center for his appointments.

"He was strong as three men," said Jeff Starks, Linda's ex-husband, whom Mr. Propes quickly befriended.

That's what makes the situation so confusing to Starks and Chambers-Puricelli. How could two robust, experienced fishermen drown in such a freak accident?

The two women were contacted by authorities a little after 11:30 a.m. Sunday. Chambers-Puricelli had just returned home from grocery shopping. Starks had talked to Mr. Propes a couple hours earlier, when he called to wake her up.

She said the same thing she said every morning: "I love you. Be careful. Have a good time."

The men set up the fishing trip after meeting at a party. They launched Mr. Puricelli's 15-foot bass fishing boat from Anderson Park around 7 a.m.

By 11:30 a.m., the boat was reported empty and adrift in the outfall canal. As the hours wore on, Chambers-Puricelli and Starks grew increasingly anxious.

No one's sure exactly what happened on the boat that morning. Autopsies of the men didn't yield any clues, although authorities said the cause of death was drowning. Police speculate one man may have fallen in the water and the other went in after him.

Chambers-Puricelli and Starks say they've accepted they'll probably never know.

"As far as we're concerned, they're both heroes," Chambers-Puricelli said. "There was humanity there. They weren't even buddies, per se. They were just human beings."

Elena Lesley can be reached at elesley@sptimes.com or 727 445-4167.

[Last modified October 4, 2007, 22:03:19]