Last night John and I were watching a 20/20 report of weather myths that included a segment on lightning safety. I couldn’t help but remember the time John was nearly struck by lightning.

(Aside: John would title this post differently, of course. Last night I reminded him of when he was nearly struck by lightening and he just laughed saying, “I wasn’t nearly struck by lightning. It struck clear across the street!” Well, I’m writing this post and I say that lightning striking across the street from you means you were nearly struck by lightning, so I’ll title my post however I want.)

We were living in Provo and had just gotten home from dinner or someplace. It was dark and windy and looked stormy, although it wasn’t raining. As we walked from our car to the front door John said he thought he’d go for a walk. I said, “Suit yourself,” and off he went while I headed inside.

Once inside our condo I put my stuff down on the counter, checked our messages, and turned to head back into the living room. As I did I heard a loud boom and saw an enormous flash of light through the dining room window. It was brilliantly bright. I figured lightning must have hit a house or tree nearby, and I thought, “Wow! How amazing that I happened to turn just in time to see that!”

Not thirty seconds later John came back inside.

“That was a short walk,” I said. I noticed he seemed a little more excited than usual, which was due to the fact that he had nearly been struck by lightning and Could. Have. Been. Dead.

He had been walking around our block and was partway down 500 East when the lightning hit. It struck the tree diagonally across the street from where John was standing, maybe thirty-five feet away.

I think I was more shook up by it than he was. (How can guys get so excited by stuff like that when all the wife can think is, “Thank goodness I’m not a widow, thank goodness I’m not a widow…”?)

The next day we walked around the corner and saw the damage. The tree had been blown to smithereens with only a jagged stump left.

Moral: Don’t walk around the block in a lightning storm. Not even if it there is no lightning but could be. Especially if you’re married and your wife isn’t ready to be a widow yet. Do like the report on 20/20 said and stay home or in your car, but don’t hide under the tallest tree or on top of the Empire State Building or anyplace else prone to lightning. Otherwise you could end up like that jagged stump of a tree.