Shock to the System

I'm in shock. We were sitting in the family room with my youngest daughter and her fiance' (hubby and myself) 'testing' a bottle of champagne to have at their wedding in March. We'd been having a lovely evening drinking and watching a movie and visiting. The phone rings. It's my mother calling from Arkansas. She tells me "something bad" has happened.

My first reaction was that their little dog had passed away. She's about 13 and getting pretty old and my parents dote on her. My second reaction was that my father had been forced to return to the hospital - he'd only been out for a week after having his second hip-replacement surgery.

I was wrong. "Our house burned down this afternoon". WTF?!?!?!? NOOOOO! OHMYGOD!

I am still in shock. They had retired 12 years ago and built this new house and moved from Iowa to Arkansas (I'm still in Iowa) and now they had nothing. People in their 70's with each other, a dog, and a van. Period. A lifetime totally gone. Thank God they got out okay and did get the dog out, but still... it's going to be so hard... They sound so lost. I can't imagine.