Jonathan D. Blundell

In 1842 a 22-year-old Catholic woman of nobility married a colonel in the Dutch Cavalry.

Despite the bride’s nobility, the groom was not of nobility and was a Protestant as well.

Catholic nobility, marrying “peasant” Protestant – what a scandal it must have been.

Yet despite their differences, the two were married for nearly 40 years before the groom died.

Eight years later the bride followed him in death.

Rather than being buried in her families large tomb, she insisted that she be buried in the common cemetery.

However, the cemetery had strict guidelines on where bodies could be buried. Catholics were buried in the larger area of the cemetery and protestants and Jews were buried in smaller areas, essentially quarantined by a wall, separating them from the other areas.

Before her death, the bride ordered that her bodied should be laid to rest by her Protestant husband, with a monument signifying their eternal connection.

She lies on one side of the wall, he on the other, still holding hands.

HT: David Bruce and Neatorama