The Most Heartwarming True Love Stories You'll Ever Hear (Part Two)

Although Valentine’s Day is just one day of the year, we like to think love and marriage is something that should be celebrated every day. The number of inspiring and touching love stories that are out there are endless, and thanks to social media it has become easier for people’s stories to be told. So next time you’re feeling down about relationships, instead of turning on the latest romantic comedy, inspire yourself even more by surfing the internet for romance stories that actually happened. Because these stories are so much better than anything that could be made up. 

Take Lady Van Aefferden and Colonel JWC van Gorkum for example. During a time where a form of segregation referred to as “pillarisation” divided Catholics and Protestants and forced them to live in separate societies, the couple went against what was considered acceptable in society and didn’t let their religious beliefs come between their feelings for one another. Van Gorkum was Protestant and van Aeffereden was Catholic, so their marriage was very controversial. But this didn’t stop them from a wonderful and happy 42 years of marriage. Upon van Gorkum’s death he was to be buried in the cemetery for Protestants, somewhere van Aefferden would never be allowed to be reunited with him. But even in death, van Aeffereden made it clear that she would not be separated from her late husband. So instead of being buried in her family tomb, she opted to be buried in a different section of the cemetery, which allowed for the only separation between her and her husband’s grave to be a brick wall. She then added stone hands holding one another across the brick wall from one tomb to the other tomb, ensuring that they would “embrace for eternity”. Today the famous tombstones are referred to as het graf met de handjies, which translates to “grave with little hands”. 

Liu Guojiang showed his love for his wife by carving 6,000 steps by hand into the mountainside near their small hut, since he was worried that she would get injured on the steep trail. He dedicated 57 years to building and maintaining the steps down the side of the Chongqing mountain.

But that was far from the first time he had done something amazing for his wife, Xu Chaoqing. It started from the first time they met, when Guojiang rescued Chaoqing and her daughter from a rushing river they had tumbled into while washing clothes. The attraction was instant and it wasn’t long after he rescued her that they began dating. The village they lived in did not approve of their Today, they are both buried together in the same mountain side where Guojiang dedicated years of time and energy building those steps for his beloved wife.

ten year age difference, so they retreated to the hut in the mountain where they could live out their marriage in peace.