Half our house is gone, even though the fire burned for only a few hours. Most of our clothes and photos are ruined, even our safe—the safe with Mary’s old diaries, the passbooks for the boys’ college accounts, what little jewelry we had…all gone.
Whoa, that explains some stuff. Wonder of he eventually got access to those accounts and what happened to the boys' college accounts? Here is hoping he didn't spend what was saved. . .

