Tear Jerker / 1632

---

• In Chapter 15 of the novella "Four Days on the Danube" from Ring of Fire III, the story of Ursula Gerisch, who fled the stench of her father's tannery to wed a handsome young lieutenant ... only to be left in the lurch by his death, and by the death of each of the soldiers after him for whom she served as a concubine, until she ended up warming the bed of Colonel von Troiberz: a bitter, unpleasant, and quite literally foul human being whose sole virtue to Ursula's eyes is that he does not beat her. When she finds herself in a dirigible after Rita Simpson rescues her from the freezing woods in the wake of firebombing the village von Troiberz was passed out drunk in, her reaction is almost heartbreaking:
  Some time later, looking out at the moon from the gondola, Ursula finally spoke.
  
  "I'm flying," she said, wonderingly. "I'm really flying."
  
  A while later, she added, "Away."

• The death of George Blanton, in Grantville Gazette I's "Anna's Story", especially the last paragraph, in which George leaves everything he has to his adopted granddaughter, Anna, the young woman who was seen running from Tilly's mercenaries in the first pages of 1632, was taken under George's wing along with her parents, and is now betrothed but doesn't have a dowry...until George's bequest.

• The Battle of Wismar. Larry and Bjorn getting killed is bad enough, but when Hans is shot and finds he can no longer withdraw from the battle... The following chapter with how the other characters cope with the aftermath is almost as powerful.
• The Richter family's - especially Hans and Gretchen's - experiences as victims of war and camp followers.

---