Should love always be mutual?

I wanted to share a story from one of our readers. She is just 20 years old and is dating a 43-year old man.

"We met through friends when I was 17. Everything was great for the first six months; in fact he chased me for three months and one day I felt completly head-over-heels in love! Then he started to change. He split up with me and slept with any woman he could find as well as me. He is my first ever love and boyfriend and however nasty he was to me, I held on! He would always tell me to move on and when I began to do so, he would beg me to come back! I will never give up on him because I know how hurt he was in his mariage and there is a beautiful man inside when he shows it! It has been nearly three years now and still it is the same situation - he loves me for a few weeks and then he doesn't even want to know where am I! I am unsure if this is because of his past and his scars, but I will always love hin and I am not quite ready to give up yet although I am starting to struggle to show him what he has and what he will lose. I don't want to give all my love to him and end up being so hurt that I will not love again! There's just something so special about him that I can't give up! I just want to be loved back and made to feel the way I try to make him feel every day! We are the best of friends and so similar! I love the fact that he is wise and can teach me things! There is no issue over the age gap. I believe that it adds to our relationship, but maybe if I were able to have met him 20 years ago, he might not have had so many issues and he would be more willing to give this relationship a real chance! I don't want children and he has already done that. I also don't want marriage - all I want is me and him and commitment! I believe we are more perfect because of our age difference because we are on the same path but at different stages of our lives! I know he wants to be loved and after all we have been through a lot. If we are still together, there must be some fate in that! I am just going to hold on and believe that one day he will realize what he has and I will be cherished at last!"

What do you think?

Is she delusional? Is this man abusing a young woman? Should she end the relationship and move on? Or will the man see her unconditional love and give her what she deserves? Has something like this happened to you before? What did you do? How did things turn out for you? Please let me know. If you have a blog, you can blog about it or you can simply share your thoughts here (no email address is needed).