The True Story of the Worlds First Documented Alien Abduction: Life Without Barney
During the promotion of the book, the Hills were besieged with a variety of health problems. In 1967, Betty’s health had declined to the degree that she requested a transition from full-time to part-time employment at the Welfare Department. In a letter dated October 6, 1967, the bureau chief wrote, “We are all very concerned that so many physical ailments seem to have descended upon you.” This letter recommended that she take a leave of absence, rather than transfer to part-time employment.
Betty was suffering from polyps on her vocal chords that required surgical removal in January 1968, followed by a second surgery in February. The surgery left Betty unable to speak above a whisper. Eventually she regained her voice, but the surgery had permanently altered the tonal quality of her speech. Thereafter, she spoke in a raspy voice that observers often thought was caused by years of cigarette smoking.
In June, she was hospitalized with a pericarditis, an infection in the lining of her heart. When she returned home, her now-widowed mother nursed her back to health during the daytime, while Barney worked. She was physically incapacitated, unable to perform even light household duties for several weeks. This forced her to take an unpaid leave of absence from her job as a social worker. By November, she was able to return to her employment on a part-time basis and to resume lecturing about her UFO experience.
Mysteriously, all of Betty’s records pertaining to her UFO encounter disappeared from her medical file. This claim has been substantiated by a former employee at the clinic under a guarantee of anonymity. This individual stated, “Betty was such a nice, down-to-earth person. It’s really too bad—what happened to her. She didn’t deserve that kind of treatment.” Barney’s health problems receded briefly, but came back with a vengeance in 1968. It was during a 50-mile drive to a scheduled appearance that Barney experienced a health crisis. As he motored his way to the lecture hall, Barney began to experience vertigo so severe that he could no longer drive. Betty, assuming that the dizziness would pass, assumed a position behind the wheel and drove to their scheduled appointment. By the time the Hills arrived at the meeting, Barney was unable to walk without assistance. Undeterred, he addressed the group while he leaned against a chair for support. On the return trip, Betty stopped at the hospital and Barney was examined, but the doctor was not able to diagnose Barney’s condition as more than transient dizziness.
A genetic predisposition, a lifetime of poor dietary habits, a cigarette- smoking habit, and stress had taken its toll on Barney. He had success- fully refocused his energy to take leadership positions in the civil rights movement and the poverty program. Serving as legal redress for his local chapter of the NAACP and on the Governor’s Council of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, he fought for African-American equality. He worked side by side with Betty and community leaders to found the Rockingham County Community Action Program, and served as its first executive director. Barney pushed himself nearly beyond the limits of human capacity while he retained full-time employment as a city carrier with the U.S. Post Office. After the publication of The Interrupted Journey, he and Betty appeared on radio and television programs and spoke on college campuses across the nation. Barney was an uneasy participant, prefer- ring to focus on his social and political activities. Being a UFO abductee never came easy for Barney. He would have preferred to erase the entire incident from his memory. Although he became health conscious, exercising regularly, quitting smoking, and dieting, Barney could not ward off the impending cerebral hemorrhage that would soon take him at age 46.
December 24, 1968, brought the first period of grief to the Hills. Their precious companion and fellow UFO experiencer, Delsey, died. Her death was unexpected, and followed a bladder infection and brief period of dehydration that did not respond to veterinary treatment.
Then on February 25, during a raging blizzard, Barney was stricken.
Betty documented the day in this poignant excerpt:
Barney and I had both gone into our work, not realizing that we were heading into one of the worst snowstorms in our history. Soon all businesses and offices were closed, and all travelers were warned to stay off the highways. We came home, a day of unexpected holiday. Barney was elated, for all the years he had worked for the Post Office, this was the first time it had closed because of the weather.
After a leisurely breakfast, we fed the birds in the back yard, which were flying around in the swirling snow looking for food. We tossed our bread out to them and the birds came in large numbers. We watched them from the kitchen window.
Barney challenged me to a game of pool, proclaiming that he could beat me with one hand tied behind his back. Barney and I went downstairs and he built a fire in the fireplace. Then, he beat me at two games of pool. He was teasing me about his winning and was showing his prowess in hitting his trick shots. What a happy frame of mind he was in—laughing and joking. Suddenly he put his hand to the back of his neck and said he felt as though a hornet had stung him. A hornet in February in a snow storm— ”impossible,” I said. Then he felt a second sting and began to hurry upstairs. I saw him stumble on the stairs and continue his ascent as if he were crawling on his hands and feet.
He sat on the couch, and then he slipped onto the floor. He was very puzzled, and told me that something was very wrong. A moment later he asked me to call the ambulance. I put through an emergency call and then sat on the floor, holding him until they arrived.
Barney knew the ambulance crew and they immediately started to kid him. ‘What’s the matter, Barney? Is the snow storm too severe for you to drive yourself?’ Barney was clearheaded and remarked, ‘Why should I drive myself when I have you to do it for me?’ The attendant began to reach for the oxygen but, after reading Barney’s blood pressure, he put it away. He told Barney not to worry—he was going to be alright. I seconded that thought.
The admitting doctor at the hospital had known me for many, many years, for we had been college students together. He asked Barney his birth date, and he gave the wrong date. Then, his blood pressure was taken and he was admitted. He was beginning to become incoherent. Barney’s doctor was unable to get into town, because of the storm, so he called a friend of his who lived close to the hospital.
This doctor called me and said that he was walking there. When he arrived, he did a few tests, and told me what I already knew— 230 b Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience that Barney had suffered a stroke. How severe? He gave me a suggestion—if I had never prayed in my life, now was the time to do this—to pray that Barney would not survive. He said that the survival rate for this type of stroke [a cerebral hemorrhage] was three percent, but if he survived, he could live in a vegetative state, possibly for several years. This was one of Barney’s worst fears. [Though much older than Barney, his father had suffered a stroke, which left him in a permanent vegetative state.] The doctor said there was no point in my remaining at the hospital, for Barney was in a deep coma and he would not come out of it. In fact, the death process had already begun, and the hospital would call me when he died. I kissed Barney goodbye and left.
Betty returned home and began the process of informing relatives and friends of Barney’s impending death. Her best friend drove through the blizzard to be by Betty’s side, and her minister had just arrived when the phone rang. A voice on the other end conveyed the tragic news that Barney had died. It was 7:20 p.m.
Betty reminisced, “I turned on the TV, and sat on the living room couch, with the wind blowing and the snow swirling. What a strange twist to a day that had started out to be an unexpected holiday for us! This morning I was married, and now I was not. I thought that in any marriage one wonders how it will end. Now I knew.” Next, Betty phoned her sister Janet, Barney’s brother in Virginia, his sisters in Philadelphia, and the Red Cross. Arrangements had to be made for family members from as far away as Panama to travel to Portsmouth for the funeral. Next, she called John Fuller, who planned to leave his Connecticut home immediately to rush to Betty’s side. In a twist of fate, John called back a few minutes later to inform Betty that his friend, the cameraman who accompanied him to the Hills’ first lecture at the Dover, N.H. Unitarian Church, had died suddenly from a heart attack. He was needed there. Dr. Simon was next on her list.