I'm no longer married to my first husband (we divorced for reasons unrelated to his alcoholism) but he just celebrated his 31st year sober. He is still my best friend--when I go out to visit our college age kids, I stay with him and his wife.
He is a great guy, a terrific dad to our boys, but you'd never have guessed it if you'd seen how he behaved when he was drinking. He was one year sober when we got married, but we'd been together for three "drinking years" before he got sober.
There are happy endings. They take continuous effort on the part of both individuals, but the results are amazing.