Supplied: Marjorie Rowley
A remarkable story of survival for a Merritt woman was struck by lightning during a thunderstorm in Kamloops Tuesday afternoon.
If its not one disaster its another for Marjorie Rowley, after losing her step son on New Year’s Day last year, then losing her home in last summer’s Sparks Lake Fire, then six months later, watching her mobile home in Merritt float away in a flood.
RELATED: Merritt woman ‘knitting up a storm’ in Kamloops after losing her house twice in one year
Now, on Tuesday afternoon, Rowley and her dog ‘Honey’ were blasted by a bolt of lightning, while setting up her tent outside the Riverland Motel.
“I seen the flash, and I felt the energy go through me,” she explained. “It hit, and it ran down the right side of my body, I got thrown.”
“I was shaking for a good four hours, and I was shuddering.”
Although the surrounding trees and tent were left charred, Rowley and her dog Honey were able to walk away without a scratch.
Marjorie Rowleys dog Honey
“I just feel like I’m one of the luckiest people around and maybe I was saved to keep moving on and doing good things and helping people,” she said.
She says being struck by lightning was an indescribable experience, explaining it was a miracle she survived.
“The only thing that really saved me was a little square of children’s playground piece (rubber mat), but I seen it, it was fork lightning.”
Witness Rob Folino describes what he saw when Rowley was struck.
“In the tent, they just flew to the other side of the tent,” he said. “I guess why she survived is she was standing on a rubber mat and was holding another rubber mat pushing against the tent for the water when the lightning hit.”
Rowley says she went and bought a lottery ticket after being struck by lightning, telling NL News she is keeping her spirits up despite all she has gone through.
