Lovers Conquer Religious Division In Death
In 1842, a young Dutch Catholic noblewoman married a Protestant commoner who was an officer in the Dutch cavalry. J.C.P.H. van Aefferden was destined to be buried with her family in the Catholic section of the cemetery, but her husband J.W.C. van Gorkhum would not be allowed into the family plot. Van Aefferden came up with a solution, ordering two extra-tall grave markers, one with a male hand protruding and another with a female hand. When her husband died in 1880, he was buried in the Protestant section beside the wall; when she died eight years later, she was interred just on the other side of the wall, in the Catholic section. The eternally-locked hands have become a symbol of love conquering religious division.
