A Midwestern Romeo and Juliet 
     — these two in the late 1950s.

Households who attended differing churches and rival schools;
viewing the other as “afwijkend”,* 
that over the decades morphed to “offies”.*

In spite of the labels, they were alike in their foundational, fundamental belief.

Their union was atypical for such a traditional town, but on December 26, 1958, they unequivocally agreed:

To have and to hold from this day forward…
not knowing the past months would be worse, sick and near death.

They were told they would have only one child, 

                   but there’s power in the prayer of the “afwijkend”…

*afwijkend: Dutch word: abnormal, anomalous, irregular, nonconformist

*offies: English word: being ‘off’, attending a different school or denomination