Just a reminder, Grinch,
"Success" is something WE can have, regardless of whether the alcoholic gets/stays sober or not. My first husband has been sober over 33 years. He got sober at age 21, a year before we got married. We divorced almost 15 years later, for reasons unrelated to his alcoholism (I was the one who wanted out because the marriage eventually did not feel right to me), and we are still good friends.
My second husband almost died from drinking. I was positive that that experience would be enough to keep him on the road to recovery, but he slipped a few times before we got married, then went back to it full-time a couple of months after the wedding. After a few months (and lots of Al-Anon meetings) I decided I was not up for another deathbed vigil, and I left.
Which one of these is the "success story"? Well, the first one is, if you look at the results of the alcoholic's recovery. If you look at MY recovery from the effects of living with alcoholism, the second one is probably more of a success story.
When my first husband got sober, he got so THOROUGHLY recovered I figured there was no more work for me to do. I was preoccupied with school, and then my new career. I think if I had stayed connected to Al-Anon it might have prevented me from blithely jumping into a relationship with someone who had, among his belongings when we moved him into my apartment, a copy of AA's Big Book. (He explained that he "used to" have a drinking problem, but that he had gotten over it.) When my second husband returned to drinking himself to death, Al-Anon was my lifeline. It saved my sanity and, when the time was right, gave me the strength to save myself rather than going down with the sinking ship. A HUGE success for me and for my well-being.
So it's absolutely awesome when both parties' recoveries come at the same time and the relationship happily continues. Just be careful about defining "success" in terms of whether the alcoholic recovers. That is success for only one person.
Just editing to add one other thought that just popped into my head. I remember that during my first marriage, I at times felt like I should be getting more "credit" for his recovery. That, too, would have been smacked down if I had stayed involved with Al-Anon. Giving myself some kind of credit for being a supportive partner is sort of like the alcoholic wanting credit for getting sober. We don't get brownie points for doing what we are supposed to do. I think it gave me an inflated sense of what I could "do" for my second husband--the illusion that I had some kind of control over the outcome of his efforts at recovery.
Oh, the little insights life gives us... but often we get them only in hindsight.