A Love Beyond Death
It is often said that there are no doors that love cannot overcome. But sometimes, and even more so if we look back at the past, it is common for powerful walls to be erected capable of vetoing the relationship between two people.
Maybe sometime you will travel to a small town in the Netherlands called Roermond. There it is possible that your neighbors will explain what for them is, without a doubt, the most romantic love story in their country. And to prove it, they will surely take you to their cemetery.
And no, it won’t be any rough experience at all, on the contrary. You already know that some cemeteries are true marvels of architecture, beautiful settings of stillness and beautiful artistic elements that are worth knowing.
The one located in the small town of Roermond is truly special, where there is a real story tinged with sadness and charm, a unique place that receives hundreds of tourists every year, and that surely, you will love to know …
When religion separated hearts
This story begins, like all good stories, with an almost immediate encounter and infatuation. We are in 1842, and she is JWC Van Gorum, a lady of distinguished nobility who professes the Catholic religion. He, a handsome gentleman 11 years older, was a Protestant and exercised a good profession, he was Colonel Van Aefferden of the cavalry.
Although their love was sincere, their families did not see this relationship favorably. He Protestant, she Catholic and noble …
Society set clear rules and those were not to mix religions. A Catholic could not marry a Protestant, this act was an offense not only for the family, but also for the society of that time.
Challenging conventions
The couple turned their faces to those comments and decided to flee . He decided to join ties and start a life together after getting married.
You may think that, after all, if they managed to live together they found happiness … But happiness is sometimes fleeting and only finds its meaning in brief moments that do not provide lasting tranquility at all. A balance with which to live in peace and integrity.
The Van Aefferdens were disowned by their families and all their neighbors throughout their lives. Wherever they settled, they were always unwelcome, they always found harshness and elusive glances at their relationship, at a union that no church could accept.
A love beyond death
He died at the age of 71. And as the norms set, he was buried on the Protestant side of the Roermond Cemetery. If in life they could never enjoy complete tranquility, they both knew that at the time of their death they were not going to be allowed to rest in the same space as husband and wife.
The cemeteries marked clear differences between Catholics and Protestants and, each of the religions had its corresponding side in the cemetery. Both would be separated by a wall. But before this happened, our pair of lovers already had an idea planned.
Our Protestant lady passed away a few years after her husband. They buried her just opposite her husband, on the Catholic side . But when it happened, when he was buried, his last wish was fulfilled: that a sculpture should be raised on top of the wall. A beautiful sculpture of two lovers joining their hands.
It no longer mattered life or death, and even less the religions. These two lovers remain united ever since through that stone symbol . There where some souls reside who never understood the differences that men make in their desire to build walls to people’s happiness.
