Guest (WYSIWYG?), it IS about broken hardware. In days of yore there were no photographs, no telephones, no postal service, people hardly knew anyone's address as opposed from where they lived, -'the cottage just past the pub'- and 'The Press' was not what we mean by that term today. In desperate need, young men enlisted or were pressed, or sought for work elsewhere. Holidays/vacations were very few, 'holy days' was the original term, and left no time for travel, and opportunities to find a partner were also limited to the local people.
People returning to their lovers were often very different-looking to the young people who had left years before.

There are enough broken token songs in the English tradition to make that plain.