What happened in your first ever Sims family?

I created a couple and moved them into a little house (not sure which one). That very morning, the wife was supposed to start breakfast, and caught on fire. I didn't know quick meal would probably not have caught the house on fire or her. She died, the husband couldn't go to work, eat, or sleep, I also had a clown painting in their house. It was horrible. >:) :D I didn't know to sell the painting or it would just get worse from there, because he wouldn't go to work, I had to start selling off furniture to buy his food. lol He wound up with hardly nothing in his house just to eat. The clown would not leave, lol, and from then on he became my pet project to get him to work, to buy him the best stuff, eventually, and to make him happy. It didn't always work out but he was the founder of this town and the death of his wife had really done a number on him. He became my favorite Sim and everything that ever happened when I rotated to other Sims revolved around him. He tried everything and he was the star of the show, lol, everything that I ever did after that was if other Sims would be a good mate for him, or a good neighbor, or a good enemy, or a good to live in the hood he lived in etc. The whole world revolved around my decissions of how it would effect him.