I too firmly believe I was loved by my XF as much as it is possible to be loved from someone with alcohol addiction. I too TRULY loved him with all my heart to the point where I did set up boundaries as soon as I fully figured what was going on with him (as he was hiding it for quite some time from me) and therefore, I decided to call off the wedding IF he isnt ready to drop his addiction and seek out help/full on recovery. He wasn't ready for that!
So, I do believe My gift was REAL (meaning, unconditional) love in the form of first, the READINESS to leave once I was certain what was going on, and also later on, ACCEPTANCE of him ''choosing" alcohol instead of our relationship.
Also, I've decided to HONOUR his decision (and statement) to "have his own experience no matter the quality of it"and he too, managed to honour my decision to "not participate in that type of experience". We did both SUFFER genuinely tho (i believe do), each in our own way (we even both acknowledged it), due to the shattered dream we both shared (he pictured me as someone who was suppose to accept him WITH alcohol, so he also got sincerely disappointed and disillusioned when that didn't happen), but we DID manage to somehow BOTH also "let each other go now that we found the way to keep somehow more than a broken vow"
