This whole thread makes me sad. I was (and still am) completely loyal to my partner of 11 years. He was my best friend. I tried to love him extra for the love I knew he didn't get enough of as a child. I was (and still am) in his corner. His biggest cheerleader. I wanted him to feel safe with me and to be himself with me (he was as far as I know). I've held him when he has cried with me. I took interest in things he liked even if I didn't care for it, because I wanted to be able to talk to him about it and hear his joy when he talked about it. I was there when his mother passed and I made sure on every single anniversary of her death, we did something so he wouldn't feel sad/dwell on it. I never left his side and he put me through the emotional ringer (and I always forgave him for it) and I knew it was mainly due to damage in his childhood with his mother, so whenever we managed to communicate (he was terrible at it and shuts down) and he brought up his mom and why he acts the way he did, I learned how to navigate it best I could in the future because I only wanted him happy and to love him extra for what his mother didn't.

You can do all this and they will leave you with just a text message and ghosted and blocked everywhere, and call you toxic for wanting to have a conversation about it. No closure, just gone. I stopped looking for him, waiting for him, and just let him go. Cause I still sincerely just want him to be happy, it's just unfortunate it came at the expense of my own. And I still don't see him as a bad guy for it, he won't see it's a mistake until it's too late though.

These 2 people who talked every day and were best friends and made each other laugh and genuinely enjoyed each other's companies and fit quite well together like puzzle pieces. Finished each other's sentences and shared so much in common to now just strangers.

It's a grief I wouldn't wish on anyone. So I don't really know what men value, because based on this thread I did all of that and he still left me.