True love doesn’t care about differences

He’s the friendliest guy in the pharmacy where he works, always quick with a cheery greeting or offer of assistance, but yesterday he seemed a bit subdued as he stood behind the counter watching guys his age poring over Hallmark cards.

He’s from Egypt and the love of his life comes from a Palestinian family.

“We had Valentine’s Day in Egypt, and they know all about it in Palestine, too,” he recalled. “So for both of us, this is really a tough situation. You want to be a good child, raised well, raised to listen to your parents and care for them when they get older. But now the thing we most want would go against what our families believe.”

They met as students as the Mass. College of Pharmacy on a date that was arranged by friends.

“Then we ended up going out by ourselves, studying together, and I began to realize I really liked her, until I knew I was actually starting to love her. All the while, in the back on my mind I kept telling myself, ‘Watch out!’ ”

The problem? She is Muslim and he is Coptic, an Orthodox Christian Egyptian.

“Marrying out of your faith just isn’t done in her family,” he explained. “It’s not done in my family either. Everyone wants their kids to be just like them. We understand that, so sometimes we’d back away, but always end up together again. It’s been like this way for four years.”

He’s 28, making a name for himself as a pharmacist.

She’s 26, doing the same as a physician’s assistant.

Together, they have all they want except each other.

“I’ve thought of going to her family to tell them how I feel about her,” he said. “But I have to be careful. I don’t want to be disrespectful. I know she loves me, but she loves them, too. This is not a situation we chose.”

As he processes the flowery cards his customers select, watching some add a Russell Stover box for good measure, he wishes he, too, could proclaim his love from a mountaintop.

“We’ll be saying goodnight at her door,” he said, “and I’ll tell her I keep wishing for a time when we won’t have to say goodbye, when I can just close the door behind me because I’ll be home.

“Sometimes life has a way of making things hard so that we’ll appreciate them even more. Maybe that’s it.

“Meanwhile, we talk about it all the time, waiting for a miracle.”