What is True Love?

There is this one couple that sits on the front porch of that nursing home daily. The woman is debilitated mentally and physically as the result of a stroke. The husband comes to see her two or three times a day. He sits and rubs her hand and carries on a conversation with her, although there is usually little or no response from his wife. I admire him, for he is there every day. His love for her has not died through the most difficult of times. His love for her goes beyond romantic feelings, it goes beyond his need to have his needs fulfilled; it has entered into a commitment where when she suffers he suffers with her.

“To love somebody is not just a strong feeling—it is a decision, it is a judgment, it is a promise.”
(Erich Fromm, “The Art of Loving (New York: Harper & Row, 1956, p. 56.)