On October 3rd, 2021, Ruth Hamilton was sound asleep at her home in British Columbia. She had no idea that she was going to experience something very rare.

Hamilton woke up suddenly around 11:35pm. Her dog was barking, and there was what she described as “an explosion.” She wasn’t sure what happened. She noticed a small hole in her ceiling, but she didn’t see anything else unusual. Not yet.

She thought it might have been a gun. Then, she thought maybe someone broke into her home. She didn’t know what was wrong, but she knew something happened. She called 911.

While she was on the phone with the 911 operator, she looked over at her bed and exclaimed, “Oh, my gosh! There’s a rock in my bed.”

The 66-year-old British Columbia resident noticed what looked like a fairly large rock between the pillows on her bed. The object weighed 2.8 pounds.

A police officer came to Hamilton’s home. At first, the officer thought that perhaps it was a rock caused by some construction that was happening not too far away. After confirming that the construction crew wasn’t working that night, the officer had another idea. The officer told Hamilton it might be a meteorite.

Hamilton actually felt relieved knowing that it came from the sky and wasn’t something else like a gun; however, she didn’t tell anyone she had a meteorite in her home right away. Later, she shared the news with the University of Western Ontario where professor Peter Brown was able to confirm that the rock was in fact a meteorite.

In addition to telling the university, Hamilton also shared the news with her family. Her grandchildren are especially excited. She said, “My granddaughters can say that their grandmother just almost got killed in her bed by a meteorite.”

Hamilton appreciates life more than ever after this experience. The meteorite landed so close to her that it came close to killing her. She explained, “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 feels extremely lucky that she survived. She said, “I never got hurt. I’ve lived through this experience, and I never even got a scratch. So all I had to do is have a shower and wash the drywall dust away.”

Hamilton plans to keep the meteorite after the university is done studying it.

How would you react if you woke up suddenly to the sound of an explosion? Would you keep a meteorite if one landed in your home?