The Graves of a Catholic wife and Protestant husband conform with the phrase ” Till death do us part”

The astonishing picture of two statues in between the wall reaching out their hands to one another in Holland, Het Oude Kerkhof, Roermond. That beautiful image was of a catholic wife and a protestant husband who were separated by burying between two different graveyards but on another side of the wall close to one another, the phrase “Till death do us part” conforms to this amazing statue portrayed as they have been separated for the sake of beliefs on their burial site.

Those graveyards have walls at the center which creates a partition between the couple’s tombs, the other side was the grave was a Catholic woman and on the other was her Protestant husband, they both were not allowed to be buried together due to denomination and beliefs differences between the churches.

So, on the Protestant side of this cemetery, Jacobus Warnerus Constantinus also known as J.W.C van Gorcum, colonel of the Dutch Cavalry and militia commissioner in Limburg is buried. And his wife, lady J.C.P.H van Aefferden is buried in the Catholic graveyard side. They were married in 1842, the lady was 22 and the colonel 33, he was a protestant and did not belong to the nobility.

This resulted in quite a commotion in Roermond city. After being married for 38 years the colonel died in 1880 and was buried in the protestant part of the cemetery against the wall. His wife died after 8 years of her beloved husband in 1888 and had decided not to be buried in the family tomb but on the other side of the wall, the closest she could get to her husband. Two clasped hands connect the graves across the wall.