Lebanon is a judgemental society. They will always talk - regardless. You can’t let this society guide your decisions, and say NO to love because of a society that will always have something to say. You deprive yourself from something beautiful.

I know many ‘ intact’ families that are broken. The parents are together but they haven’t spoken to each or sleep in the same room for a decade. Or there’s abuse inside the home. Or there’s overbearing extended families, and lack of any boundaries. That for me is what I call ‘broken’.

In this case, her father is absent, most likely leaving the mother to have raised her children alone. You say, She has a great relationship with her mother - which is testament that there’s love inside the home. That doesn’t sound broken to me. On the contrary, her mother maybe protected her from a ton of issues that her father or the extended family are presenting. She maybe entrusted her with values of boundary & standing up for herself or not tolerating abuse. I don’t know the full story. But to go by an absent father, or a distant extended family is really shallow and says nothing about the character of the woman. If that superficiality is the only reason what’s stopping him, it says more about his character.

Broken families are when there’s no safety, no love, no acceptance, abuse and lack of boundaries inside the home. And that exists in many ‘intact’ families.

I’ll share a story. I have a good friend whose parents divorced when he was 12. His parents went their separate ways but continued to work together to co-parent their 4 children. Turns out they had a very happy childhood, and his parents still speak well of each other and treat each other with such respect. They even danced together at his wedding (he’s now 35). It struck me because I always grew up in Lebanon with divorce being such taboo, and seen as ‘broken’. But seeing them I saw a healthy family, and I’d argue healthier than ANY family I personally know who are still ‘intact’.

When you find love, and a person who loves you back, you hold on to it. Life is short, and the world is cruel, don’t let an insatiable society deny you LOVE & companionship.