For 63 years, Tom Rose and his wife, Mary, built a life together on his family farm on Canaanville Road. Then last year Mary passed away, leaving Rose to face the future alone, surrounded by a lifetime of memories.

Athens is a mix of eclectic communities - people bound by shared values and place. From the college-aged youth living in a co-op house in town to the secluded culture of people living in the hollers - people create the divergent and funky soul of this place.

Each week, couples from different backgrounds and cultural traditions forgo the pomp and circumstance of a traditional wedding ceremony. They exchange vows on the second floor of the Athens County Courthouse, a two-story red-brick building built in 1880.

"Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves," wrote Henry David Thoreau. This photographic essay looks at some of those who are lost in plain sight.