At roughly 8:15 pm on Saturday 18th August 2018, Hilary Lister died in the William Harvey Hospital, Ashford, Kent. With her at the time were friend Louise and myself. Two of her brothers and her father were already on their way and arrived later that evening. Her mother, who was working in the US, arrived the next day.
I had been with Hilary during the week before but had left on Friday morning after we walked her dog, Molly, around the orchards near to her home. That evening she followed her unusual routine. At about 1 am she called Louise and then went back to sleep.
On Saturday morning she could not be woken, an ambulance was called and she was taken to the William Harvey. When I arrived she was still in resus, Louise with her. When stable she was first moved to a side room in A&E and then to the CDU.
This wasn’t the first time Hilary had been rushed to hospital. One way or another she had spent a great deal of time in hospitals and was not keen on being there. As soon as she was conscious, Hilary would browbeat her doctors to discharge her. She was good at it. This was the one time she didn’t wake up and couldn’t talk her way out.
Toby May