Bizarre

New Jersey Man Killed By Lightning — 48 Years After His Father Was Killed By Lightning

In New Jersey, the family of Stephen Rooney, 54, is mourning his loss after a bizarre lightning strike. Rooney’s father was killed by a lightning strike 48 years ago when Rooney was five. At a picnic with friends and family, Rooney told people not to worry about the thunder in the area because lightning never strikes the same family twice. Seconds after making that statement, he was hit and killed by lightning.

The odds of a family having two individuals killed by lightning in separate incidents is astronomical. Rooney’s cousin’s son, Scott Digerolamo was also hit by the lightning and was blown off a bench. However, he survived.

Rooney had stepped away to have a cigar when the lightning struck.

Source: ABC

10 thoughts on “New Jersey Man Killed By Lightning — 48 Years After His Father Was Killed By Lightning”

  1. Have you ever heard of a smart Irishman. A smart Irishman is rare indeed.

  2. “I’m gonna guess that ‘kine’ translates to little but I don’t for the life of me know what ahora might mean.”

    Frank,

    The Yiddish for little is just like the German “Kleine”. Although I could speak Yiddish as a kid, I’ve lost much of it through the years, but drib and drabs remain along with knowing the connotations of certain phrases. So for the life of me I don’t know how to translate it but I do know what it means.

    As for Scandinavians from your neck of the woods, in 1977 camping and visiting friends in Rapid City, South Dakota, there was a motorcycle riding family of seven camping next to me, attending the Sturgis Rally. I became friends with them. The father was a huge, blond blue-eyed guy, who worked in “high steel” construction. The whole family was blond and blue-eyed. One day out of the blue he asked me if I was a Jew, as my defenses started to rise he told me that he too was of Jewish lineage.

    He was a descendant of a colony of Swedish Jews that emigrated to Minnesota in the 16th Century. He and his wife had five kids but hadn’t married, but had been together for 25 years. They were getting married at City Hall the next day to celebrate their anniversary and he wanted me to be his best man. Before the ceremony I bought a glass and when the pronouncements were made he smashed it under his heel, in the Jewish tradition of remembering the destruction of the Temple. Funny, he didn’t look Jewish.:-D

  3. I do not like elevators having had the misfortune of being struck on an elevator twice. After the first time, I stopped riding them. It didn’t matter what floor I had to go on I always took the stairs. A friend teased me about my fear and told me that I needed to get over it. He stated that the probability of getting stuck on an elevator twice was so high that I probably would never get struck again. I believed him and so decided to get over my fear and take the elevator. A week later, I got stuck on one again. So, I take the steps.

  4. I can imagine him, cigar clenched in teeth, empty lighter stretched above his head growling, “A little help here?”

  5. I’m gonna guess that ‘kine’ translates to little but I don’t for the life of me know what ahora might mean. Interesting though growing up with the folks from Lake Woebegone, good stoic Scandahovians the concept of never tempting fate runs pretty strong in me.

    There is a US Forest Ranger (may be retired by now) who at last count had been struck 9 times, twice while he was indoors! The first time I read about him it was 5 times & he sort of joked about it. After 7 he was sort of angry & questioning why God had singled him out so. Later I read he got a short gig in Vegas talking about his experiences. Still he must have been strong as hell to have survived all that.

  6. KINE-AHORA: A magical phrase to ward off the evil eye or to show one’s praises are genuine and not tainted by envy. (Yiddush)

    A superstition among Jews is to not give oneself, or others a “Kine-Ahora”, which contextually would mean don’t tempt the fates in one’s speech. An example might be:

    “You look great, “Kine-Ahora”,

    While the definition above is a good one, this phrase has evolved into a reluctance to overly praise someone and a concomitant negative reaction to praise which could be like:

    “Don’t give me any “Kine-Ahora’s”.

    I’ve lived for awhile and I’m not superstitious but remnants of one’s childhood remain in us all. After my heart transplant and running into family, friends or acquaintances people would constantly say “You look great!”
    Unknowing, that I would inwardly cringe at such statements, irrationally afraid that such statements would bring me bad luck.

    “Rooney told people not to worry about the thunder in the area because lightning never strikes the same family twice. Seconds after making that statement, he was hit and killed by lightning.”

    Eerily and tragically for Mr. Rooney and his family, he gave himself a “Kine-Ahora”, Life gets so weird at times.

  7. Why is it that incredible coincidences never seem to bode well?! For balance in this universe, I certainly hope someone out there is astonishingly lucky in everything they do — I’m certainly ready to take on that duty.

  8. Zeus does not like what the Irish catholic church did to children. He also gets angry at anti-smoking accommodationism. Enjoy your vices, but be good to your kids is what I am taking home from this.

    PS – How much do you want to bet that the family was “thanking God” that the nephew’s son survived?

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