So sad

Yesterday an older farm house about a mile down the road burned until there was nothing left but a shell. The people who owned the house are good friends of ours. We had a dairy farm and they had an apple orchard and moved here just shortly after we moved here. They have four children, the exact same ages as our four older ones. Their Rich is the same age as our Mike, their Karen is the same age as our Joel, their Michele is the same age as our Alison and their Mike is the same age as our Brian. The kids went to school together and grew up together. They lost everything - the most important being the pictures and the things we accumulate that help stimulate our memories of all the happy days we have lived while raising our families. It makes us stop and think. What would we do in a circumstance like this? No one was home and no one was hurt and that's the most important thing. Household items and furniture can be replaced. And I suppose we still have the memories. But, oh, I can't imagine losing all the things we have accumulated through the years. My heart aches for them.