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A meteorite smashed through the roof and landed on woman’s pillow

Imagine waking up to this… A Canadian woman narrowly avoided disaster when a meteorite crashed through her roof and landed on the pillow next to her as she slept.

Ruth Hamilton of Golden, British Columbia woke up to the sound of a crash and dust on her face the night of October 4.

At first, she thought the sound was a gunshot, but no one was around. Then she realized that just inches from her head there was a jagged, black rock resting on her pillow.

‘I just jumped up and turned on the light, I couldn’t figure out what the heck had happened,’ Hamilton told Victoria News.

Onlookers had enjoyed a meteor sighting earlier that night above Lake Louise, about 52 mi east.

Hamilton, who was unharmed, saw a rock on her pillow right next to where her head usually lies.

She called 911, and she and an officer made calls to confirm that it wasn’t debris from nearby construction at the Kicking Horse Canyon.

‘We called the Canyon project to see if they were doing any blasting and they weren’t, but they did say they had seen a bright light in the sky that had exploded and caused some booms,’ said Hamilton.

They eventually settled on the meteorite explanation.

‘I was shaking and scared when it happened, I thought someone had jumped in or it was a gun or something. It’s almost a relief when we realized it could only have fallen out of the sky,’ she said.

Hamilton was not injured and plans to guard the rock as a keepsake for her grandchildren.

Meteorites that originate from asteroids, rocks that orbit the sun, are all about 4.5 billion years old, according to Arizona State University’s Center for Meteorite Studies.

‘I’m just totally amazed over the fact that it is a star that came out of the sky, It’s maybe billions of years old,’ Hamilton said, adding that the cosmic near-death experience has given her a new outlook on life.

‘The only other thing I can think of saying is life is precious and it could be gone at any moment even when you think you are safe and secure in your bed.

‘I hope I never ever take it for granted again,’ she said.

Meanwhile, her insurance company plans to conduct a walk-through and determine whether burning space matter is covered under her policy. The company said they’d never handled a claim like this before.

Hamilton says she’s unlikely to take up stargazing or astronomy as a hobby.

‘That’s enough for a lifetime, I think,’ she said.

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