Mysterious alien encounters at Cowichan District Hospital

January 1, 1970. It was New Year’s Day, 1970, but it was supposed to be a routine morning shift at Cowichan District Hospital. Nurse Doreen Kendall had started her shift at midnight and was due to get off work at 8 a.m. Not much of a way to greet the New Year, but it was her job. 

Doreen, a practical nurse, worked on the second floor of the hospital at Duncan, on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Doreen lived in Nanaimo and commuted the twenty-six miles to Duncan. 

At 5 a.m. Doreen and nurse Frieda Wilson began their usual morning rounds in a four-bed ward. While Frieda attended to the patient nearest the door, Doreen checked on the patient in the next bed, nearest the window. As she did every morning, she went to open the drapes in order to let in a little of the early morning sunshine. 

When she opened the drapes, she was amazed to see something totally unexpected. Outside, about sixty feet away, a flying object was hovering at a height of about sixty feet, even with the third floor of the hospital. The object was saucer-shaped, with a transparent bubble-like dome in the center, and was tilted slightly towards her. 

Because the object was tilted toward her, Doreen could see inside the transparent dome, where she saw two humanoid figures standing in front of a chrome, dial-covered instrument panel.
She estimated the figures to be about six feet tall, wearing dark clothing, and some sort of headgear. There were seats in front of the instrument panel, but the figures were standing rather than seated. 

Doreen was stunned. The Cowichan area had a reputation as a UFO “hotspot”, but she had never expected to see one herself. 

As she watched, one of the men noticed her and touched the other, apparently to alert him of the fact that they were being watched. The other man looked up, and then manipulated a control, causing the object to begin to move. 

At this point Doreen called to Frieda Wilson, who came to the window in time to see the object outside. The two then ran to the nurses station and told three other nurses, who reached the window in time to see the object, although it was some distance away by then. 

The object circled several times and then vanished to the northeast at high speed. The sighting was never explained.