Another Tragedy By Fire.... This Just Sucks!

Remember me telling you about our best friends buying a new house? They spent all last week moving in and had just gotten it almost like they wanted it, with just a few things left to tweak here and there. It was looking absolutely perfect.


So, last night they went to bed around 9:00 PM only to awaken to the sound of their front door being ripped from its hinges. Unfortunately, it was the fire department doing the job. Apparently, the firefighters tried to awaken them by ringing the bell, which didn't work, so they had to bust the door down to awaken them and get them out of the house. After all the fresh paint, new ceiling fans, etc. it is now all smoke damaged beyond belief.


Evidently, the fire had started in the garage which is attached to the guest house, and a neighbor returning home was able to see the smoke and called the fire department.  Sadly, they weren't able to save anything, including my friend's Toyota Land Cruiser, but they at least doused that fire before an explosion was imminent. Thank the Lord they escaped that frightening outcome.


Even worse, these are our friends who lost their two West Galveston Island beach houses during Hurricane Ike. I know. It's unbelievable, right? Luckily, they still had not put their other house here on the market yet, so they were able to go back there to spend the remainder of the night although I'm sure they didn't sleep much after that. I asked my friend if she thought perhaps God had confused them with Job. It's just been one test after another for this lovely couple I think the world of, which breaks my heart. I mean, these are two of the kindest, most generous and wonderful people on the face of the earth.

Of course, they have plenty of insurance to eventually replace things and rebuild the garage and guest house, replace the Land Cruiser, that kind of thing. Oddly enough, this is the couple that got me *back on the horse* after my art studio burned to the ground by commissioning me to make a 8' by 10' hand painted canvas floor cloth, which was also lost in their fire last night. I've almost thrown up twice today while thinking about it all. My heart just aches for them. Honestly, how much can one couple deal with before snapping? And yet, they are shaken but not beaten.....