Chapter 32
5:30 PM
December 15, 1942
Le Tort Brothers’ Funeral Home
Carlisle, Pennsylvania
Winter had come early to the Cumberland Valley. It had been chilly and blustery since Halloween. The ridgelines surrounding Carlisle looked bare and lonely long before the winter solstice, and the somber note of nature’s display sent a sad message to the good people of Carlisle, already dispirited by the war news.
Thanksgiving had been a wet, icy affair. Over six inches of snow had fallen in Carlisle the day after the holiday. War rationing limited highway travel, but even that became snarled on the slick, frozen roads.
Although the war reports had been bad for most of 1942, the hearty people of central Pennsylvania had persevered. When compared to the circumstances in France, Holland, Belgium
