In the Hautes-Fagnes peat bog of eastern Belgium, a stone cross stands as a memorial to one of history's saddest love stories. According to Atlas Obscura, François Reiff and Marie Solheid met in eighteen seventy and became engaged. On January twenty-second, eighteen seventy-one, a terrible snowstorm blanketed the region. Despite the conditions, the young couple set out to collect marriage documents. They never arrived. Months later, after the snow melted, officials discovered Marie's body near the Belgian-Prussian border. Inside her dress was a heartbreaking message from François: "Marie has just died and I'm going to do it too." His body was found two kilometers away. Since at least nineteen oh-six, a cross has marked the spot where Marie fell—a permanent memorial to two lovers buried apart in different villages, together in tragedy, separated forever in death.

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