Couple reunited

By Shaun Inguanzo
JOE Dannaoui can resume life a happy man after the winds of fate swept his wife from war-torn Lebanon and landed her in Noble Park.
Star last month reported Mr Dannaoui, 34, was living in anxiety while his wife Mariette, 24 – who he’d married just seven months earlier – was trapped in Lebanon as bombs rained in from neighbouring Israel.
The Australian Embassy in Lebanon had closed down and could not process Mrs Dannaoui’s temporary spousal visa that would allow her to enter Australia.
But on Monday Mrs Dannaoui touched down in Melbourne, much to the relief of husband.
“It is great to have her here, she is safe now,” Mr Dannaoui said.
“I don’t have to worry about her being bombed.”
Mr Dannaoui said his wife had travelled to Beirut last Thursday to visit the skeleton-staffed embassy where she explained her situation and was granted the temporary spousal visa.
A day later the road she travelled to Beirut on was destroyed by missiles – not the first time the devastation would trail Mrs Dannaoui as she planned to drive to Syria with her parents.
“When we were driving to Syria we were scared that the bombings would kill us,” she said.
“I called mum to make sure they returned to Lebanon safely and she said the bombings had destroyed the road we took to go to Syria that same day.”
Now happily together, Mr and Mrs Dannaoui will focus on finding a home of their own and settling down to have a family.
“We will just live a normal life,” Mrs Dannaoui said.
“I hope to visit Lebanon in the future when hopefully everything is okay.
“I am very sad about what has happened to Lebanon.”
Mr Dannaoui, a teacher at Berwick Primary School, took time off work to show his wife her new country.
“We’ve missed out on lots by not being able to see each other,” he said.
“I will also be taking her around Melbourne so she becomes familiar with it.”