Man Widowed on His Honeymoon When His Wife Is Struck by Lightning Right in Front of Him

 

Kathleen Bartlett and Ryan Pocius were married less than one week when they hiked Mt. Yale in Denver, Colorado, on July 17. When they reached 12,400 feet, the couple were struck by lightning, injuring Pocius, 32, and killing Bartlett, 31, immediately. The Denver Post reports Pocius could not get cell service to call for help and had to wait three hours with his dead wife before rescue helicopters were able to reach him.

Pocius and Bartlett met in 2014 at a bar where she worked part-time: "We ended up having more things in common than we first thought, including a shared appreciation for kids' movies, yoga, sarcasm and love for the outdoors," she wrote on TheKnot.com. The couple was engaged after just six months of dating.

According to a GoFundMe set up by Pocius's brother Adam, Bartlett and Pocius were on the last day of their honeymoon, which they'd spent hiking together. Pocius was injured critically and is recovering now, Adam writes, but he "is heartbroken that his 'Katie bear' is gone."