Book: Story Bag

1. Belgium

The Sweethearts’ Cross

They were young and they were in love. What did it matter to them that a blizzard was blowing in, when they set off straight across the Fagnes on the morning 21 January 1871 to fetch papers for their wedding?

François Reiff was born in 1839 in Bastogne, and was now working on the building of the Gileppe dam; He met up with housemaid Maria Solheid at the place where they had first set eyes on each other, the Café Mixhe in Jalhay, where Maria’s brother was working. They planned to go 20 kilometers across the fens to Xhoffraix, which was where Maria was born in 1846. Maria’s brother was worried: the snow was too deep and the wind was driving fresh clouds in. But Maria and François would not wait.

A few hours later, they were regretting not having heeded the warning. The snow had drifted over all the waymarkers. The struggle against the blizzard was exhausting them. They were tormented by hunger and thirst. Fear crept their limbs.

At the border between Prussia and Belgium, Maria collapsed. François called out her name, and tried to warm her with his body – but in vain. In his despair, he scribbled a note: “Maria has just died, and I am now going to die as well.” Then he set off, hoping to make it back to Jalhay to bring help. But he lost his way and stumbled deeper into the white wilderness.

On 13 March 1871, François Reiff’s body was found near Solwaster. On 25 March 1871, a Prussian customs official the discovered Maria Solheid. But her lifeless body was not where François had left her, thinking that she was dead. In fact Maria had merely fainted. She had tried desperately to make it to Baraque Michel, where so many lost people had found salvation. It was only a little bit further. But she had no strength left, and at border marker 151, Maria could go no further. With har last ounce of strength, she pulled off her petticoat and hung it over a bush: surely somebody would spot it? Then she went to sleep and never wake up – just two kilometers from her beloved François.

François Reiff was just 32 years old, Maria Solheid 25. The Fagnes stole their lives from them, but ensured their memory would live on for ever. Even today, a cross near Baraque Michel commemorates the lovers. But the real Sweetheart’s Cross has been preserved in a glass case at the Nature Protection Centre at Botrange. Of all the crosses in the Fagnes, it conceals perhaps the most moving story.