52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 12 (Misfortune)

On the whole, I believe that my ancestors have avoided misfortune for the most part.  At least beyond what most endured during their life time: Revolutionary War, The Great Depression, World War I and World War II.  Individuals suffered hardships, but probably no worse that their neighbours.  Of course, my research has not revealed specifics as to what caused my ancestors to leave their homelands in Europe and settle in North America.

The individual who is the focus of this writing is my Mother's Uncle Stan.

Stanley Schell was born April 4, 1910 in Glencairn, Tosorontio County, Ontario to John Schell and Mary Deadman.  He was the youngest of their ten children.  He had barely turned 6 years old, when his father died May 24, 1916.  The eldest child, George (my Grandfather) was barely 21 and took over the operation of the family farm in Brentwood, Simcoe County, Ontario. John had purchased the farm not long before his death.  As the other sons reached adulthood, they left the farm for work in automobile factories in Michigan and Ohio.  Some did return to Ontario after a few years but only Will returned to farming.  Stan did not follow his brothers to the United States, but he did leave the family farm for work in Toronto.

As Toronto was only a short distance from the family farm in Brentwood, Stan made frequent visit back home on weekends to see family and friends.  On one of those visits in July 1944, he had met up with some friends as soon as he got off the train and spent the evening socializing.  Late in the evening, the car he was travelling in was in an accident.  The driver was dead at the scene and Stan suffered injuries which left him an invalid for the rest of his life.  As a young girl, I remember him needing a cane to walk.

After he recovered from the automobile accident, he returned to work in Toronto and lived with his married sister Maude and her family.  By the early 1960s, he was no longer working and was living back in Brentwood - either with my Grandfather George or another brother, Will.  By this time, both George and Will were retired from farming.  George still lived in the family farmhouse but Will had sold his farm and was living in a house he had built down the road from George.

On February 22, 1966 Stan was staying at Will's.  Will and his wife Dorothy had gone into town for the day, leaving Stan home alone.  When Stan was preparing his lunch, something caught fire on the stove and the fire spread through the house.  Needing a cane to get around, Stan was not able to move quick enough to evacuate the house in time.  Sitting in his own home up the road, George saw the flames of Will's house but was not able to run down the road in time.  The stairs from the main floor to the back door had collapsed and Stan's body was found near the top of the former stairs.

Would Stan's life been any different if his father had not died so early in Stan's life?
Would Stan's life been any different if he had not gone out socializing with friends in the mid-1940s?