Poppy and lightning

I only remember a few stories from Poppy, my father's father, Thomas Heeg.  He grew up on a dairy farm in Elmhurst, NY in the late 1800s.  There were a lot of dairies in Newtown and Elmhurst then.  He drove the milkwagon that was pulled by a horse to deliver the milk.  One time lightning struck and killed his horse and knocked my grandfather off the wagon.  Another time lightning hit the chimney of their barn and set the barn on fire.  Still whenever there was a lightning storm, my father and I would stand out on the stoop and watch the bolts.  Unrelated, but my mother's aunt, possible St. Clare, was holding one of my mother's brothers in her arms when he was a baby and either a bolt of lightning or St. Elmo's fire came through the kitchen near where she was standing.