Roy Sullivan. His extraordinary life began in February 1912, born just one day after Eva Braun and just one week before Arizona was admitted as the 48th state of the United States. He began a career as a US park ranger in Virginia as a 24 year old. He was a big rugged chap, the type of chap you would want to see ranging. The type you would feel could save you if you fell into a ravine or came across a Mountain Lion in a clearing. According to The Lakeland Ledger (a Florida rag), when interviewed in 1972 he had a “soft voice full of the ancient middle English accents of people who grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains”. But his true curse was electricity based, between 1942 and 1977 he was struck by lightning seven times. That’s seven too many times by anyone’s standard. Later in his life he became saddened as people would no longer want to be around him, especially if a storm was brewing. He recounted this tale once: “I was walking with the Chief Ranger one day when lightning struck way off. The Chief said, ‘I’ll see you later.’” Poor old Roy. It’s rare to get hit by lightning, that goes without saying, I have never met a single person who has been stroked by electricity from the sky, but to get seven smashers is literally a Guiness World Record, and if it’s good enough for McWhirter it’s good enough for me. By working outdoors, in a particularly electrically busy part of the world his chances obviously increase. But seven?
So how did Roy get on?: Well the first strike, which he considered the worst, seared a one centimetre strip all along his right leg, hit his toe and blew it off (or his toe nail depending on who you trust), producing a hole in his shoe where the blood could run off; The second got him through the open window of his truck while he was driving and he narrowly missed careering over a cliff edge; The third was a shoulder shot while he was in his yard; The fourth one pretty much balded him and mightily shook him, he began believing he was cursed or some such voodoo, so he would always lie on the seats of his truck if he heard a storm coming up the rear and always carried water with him wherever he went. Numero five: He had spied a storm creeping up on him and attempted to outrun it. When he thought he was safe he got out of his car and was hit again, this time it blew off his shoe and set his hair on fire leaving him to crawl back to the truck to fetch the water to put himself out. By event six he was fairly convinced a cloud was actively chasing him, steered by Thor himself no doubt, and he was struck on the ankle. I mean, you would think it was following you wouldn’t you? That’s not delusional, that makes good sense when you look at his previous. Any sane man would start getting some kind of paranoid fixation. It’s enough to turn a Heathen to the Gods. The seventh and final meeting with the powers above happened while he was fishing in a pool, it hit his head and seared his trunk, he ran from the pool to get to his car where he was met by a bear who fancied a go on his fresh trout. According to Sullivan that was the twenty-second time he had beaten a bear off with a stick. What a legend.
All of the strikes were verified by his Super Intendent and by doctors. He also claimed that he was struck first when he was a youngster, it got him via the scythe that he was wielding but it didn’t hurt him. That one had no evidence behind it though so he never counted it. His poor wife was smashed by his curse one day too as they were both hanging out the washing but thankfully she was unharmed. It’s as if the bolt knew it was off target and let her off.
He became acutely sensitive to the preconditions of a strike, as you would, and was quoted as saying he would notice an aroma of sulphur, his hair would bristle, and within three seconds it would get him. He described the sensation as “like being cooked inside your skin.” He also said `It’s awful. I don’t believe God is after me. If He was, the first bolt would have been enough.` Yes, maybe so, but I certainly don’t hold it against him that he became just a touch paranoid. He’s an inspirational character and has been the subject of a number of artistic ventures. I recommend giving this a listen: a track by “I Hate Myself” called “Roy Sullivan, by Lightning Loved” On my infinite quest for knowledge I also found a website: www.struckbylightning.org which is a kind of support group for those poor individuals who have laughed at the laws of probability and been hit by a 20,000 degree C spark travelling at up to 220,000 km/h. This is a quote from someone called Danny that shows you just exactly how much of a big deal these events are: “Hey, nice to meet ya. Im Danny Cole and was struck directly in the head by lightning back in May 25, 1985 while ridding my harley down the freeway, my heart stopped twice, i was in a coma and life support for two weeks, and was paralyzed for about a year my neroendings were all burned away from being shorted out, i had a power lifting team in cleveland take me under there wing since the doctors had no clue how to help me, the team all helped by exercise, much like the way they trained for power lifting , my pain was horrifying for about ten years, and still have tingling and numbness in my feet and hands…..hey its great to see there is site now that we can share info and maybe help someone the may may questions aout loved ones or themselfs who may have been struck………Thanks again”
Another moving and tragic story comes from another Sullivan, this time John Sullivan, born in 1985: “(he) hasn’t walked, talked, fed, bathed or clothed himself in 24 years — since the day he was struck by lightning during a high school golf tournament at the age of 17.” His Father diligently looks after his son 24 hours a day and, as such, is bankrupt. And although they fought and won an appeal in courts for financial help with the enormous burden of a life of caring for someone, the family is now, once again, fighting the government to prevent the money they receive being slashed by 75%. That doesn’t seem quite right.
So, back to our hero, Roy, as, demonstrated above, lightning is clearly a ferocious beast, not to be frigged with, but yet it still didn’t manage to electro-convulse him off this mortal coil, so what did? This is where it really gets sad. He retired at 65, in 1977, the year of his last meeting with Thor, and one year before I was born. Seven years later, he was dead, a self inflicted gun shot wound to the belly. Some say he simply couldn’t handle the fear anymore, but other stories tell of a broken heart due to being deserted by the woman he loved. A Homerian tragic tale. This story of woe proves that it doesn’t matter what you have been through, what levels of suffering you have endured, unrequited love is the most painful affliction known to mankind. R.I.P Roy.
