How do u let go of a man u love?

I am 19 years old going to b 20 this year....my ex bf and i have dated for about 5 months now, to us it feels so much longer. we were in a serious relationship and we love each other a lot...recently last week i broke up w/ him due to parent's disapproval and family involve conflicts...for the past 4 months that he and i have dated, we've been hiding our relationship away from my parents...the reason was because i was afraid of my parents, they've met him twice and was extremely upset, things didn't go well, so i hide our relationship away from them to prepare myself to be able to take care him, and still b in contact w/ him..u see, my ex bf has been divorced and he has two kids...his divorce of 5 years ended just last summer, he is 23, has no car, not much money, have tatoos, scars, and he smokes, but beyond that he has a very caring and pionate heart, very straightforward and honest with his words...he loves his kids very much and even after all the things that happened b/t his ex wife and him, he learn to still b at peace w/ her...this man is a very forgiving man, throughout our 5 months together we have had only 3 arguments which all deals w/ my family's disapproval and judgements of us only, other than that, he has never cuss at me or hurt me in any way, when i am upset or angry, he becomes the one that smiles for me..i love him very much, the day that i physically let him go was the day that he and i decided to tell my parents that we r still seeing each other, we r serious with each other, and love each other...after i told my parents everything went so horrible that day, my mom wanted to leave, my dad wanted to give up and told me to just kill him, they wanted me to leave and marry my ex, but they expect a downry of 10,000 dollars, my sister cried and yelled at me...my car keys and cellphone was taken away from me, my family was basically falling apart...u guys may think that's crazy and maybe it is but my family has gone through a lot in the past and in the past relationships my siblings were involved in, it hurts me to see my family falling a part and stress out, my family got into conversations w/ my ex bf and things got worse because they just can’t accept my ex bf because of his past…my parents r afraid to face conflicts and r afraid their reputation will b ruin if relatives and friends find out that the man their daughter wants to b with comes with a bad reputation. my family don't believe my ex can truly love and support me, they r scare he might just b using me and will later on abuse me, yes, there has been some mistakes he has done in the past, but he has explained and told me those mistakes and how he has changed for the better and wants to continue to improve on himself, and even his counselor has told me he has improved, he told me he needs me because i am his motivation, i am his joy and he can't imagine being w/ anybody else but me, even though i have physically let him go, he still hasn't given up on us, he beg me to go back to him...i know he is trying very hard for us, getting two jobs, continuing to go to school, quit smoking and everything, he told me that it is so hard to do good and move up when everybody or the world just look down upon u and pushes u down even further... i love him so much, i don't think i will ever love another man as much as i love him, people tell me i deserve a better man, a man w/ a good education, stable job, and stuff like that, but behind all of those materials and stuff, if a consider "good" man didn't have all of that, would he still b who he is and have a loving heart? y do we have to make or let reputation live us, i know this is life and it's how people live, it's important to have a good reputation and all but once we die, will it really b that important? i believe the decision to let him go was best for everyone, i know he can find somebody again & can b happy w/out me, i will just b a good friend, support and motivate him on the side even though it will hurt me like hell seeing him w/ another woman, it's better than having him suffering w/ me, and w/ this decision, my family will also b at ease, i did what i believe is best for everyone, but it is so hard to let somebody u love go when they still hold on to u so strongly, what should i do? my ex says he can't live w/out me, he has gone through too much pain in the past, he wants me and said he has never wanted anybody/anything so badly in his life and it is driving him crazy...it hurts me a lot that i am hurting him, but it also hurts me when i am hurting my family too, please tell me what u guys/girls think, this is very important to me, thank you so much:)