AN AMAZING COINCIDENCE!

By Bill Foster

Abductions and aliens are not, contrary to popular belief, my main business in life. To the contrary I have many business interests. Among those are playing the piano for retirement complexes, freelance writing, book writing and our main business pet sitting in the pets’ home(s). Our website, if you are interested in what we do is: www.billandpeggyspetsitting.com I tell you this only as a prelude to this amazing coincidence I am going to describe.

In the course of our business of pet sitting we have dogs that need daily walks. The owners of the pets’ both work and the dog needs to go potty at midday so we take them for a half-hour walk in the middle of the day.

One of these dogs was in downtown Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where we live. The dogs’ name was Izzy ("was" as in now deceased). I walked Izzy for six years through the neighborhood, taking different directions on many days. Over the course of three years we found an elderly lady who had fancy chickens in her yard. (I am not a chicken expert so I don’t know what you call chickens with pretty colored feathers.)

Anyway, the dog, Izzy, really liked looking at these chickens so we would stop in front of the fencing so that Izzy could view the chickens. Most days, this elderly lady was out weeding her garden and we would chat with her about the weather, her prize chickens and just small talk. A very nice lady, indeed.

One day, about a year and a half ago, we walked by that house and the chickens were gone! There was a young man, raking the yard. I inquired what happened to the lady and her chickens. He told me that she had passed away and he just bought the house. He said that perhaps I knew her as she was quite famous. I told him I only knew her in the course of doing my job and was not familiar with her name but probably would not recognize it anyway. Then he told me the shocking news. He said:

"Her name was Betty Hill. Perhaps you might have read about her abduction along with her husband, Barney Hill?"

As you can imagine, I was totally shocked. Betty Hill? You mean for three years I had been talking to her and had no idea who she was? I had so many questions for her and so much in common to talk to her about and all we discussed were chickens?

It saddens me to think that all that time I spent talking to her I had absolutely no idea who she was. In case you are wondering – yes, I knew Betty Hill lived in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and yes, I knew Barney had died ten years earlier and yes, I knew that Betty was still active and writing books.