Unconditional love - What does it mean?

I used to think unconditional love is impossible, then I realized unconditional love is loving the person with all their inequities hoping one day, either my love for them or something will change them to be loveable  I was wrong. I think the meaning of unconditional love is to love the person as they are - not as we hope one day would be. Loving them without judgement. Loving them even when they are nasty to us, even when they are indifferent toward us, even when they don't love us, even when they push us, even they hurt us. 

However, loving a person unconditionally does not mean we have to stay in their life or we have to stay in theirs, sometimes, it might even mean letting them go. We can love them from far. We can care for them and pray for them from far. There was a woman I knew who loved her ex-husband unconditionally. Let me tell you her story.

"This man was a high official in the government  When the government he was serving was thrown out, he was put in prison. When his wife went to visit him with food the guard told her that his wife was already there and has brought him his food. The woman was confused and ask the guard to describe the woman for her and not only he described her for her but he told her that she is there everyday. She told herself there must be a mistake but when she start talking to others she found out it was true. He had been having an affair with the other woman for more than six years. 

The next few years this lady continue to take food for him. She even talked to the other lady and divided the responsibility of delivering food for him. The day he got out of prison, she prepares a feast for all the people who were coming to express their joy but did not stay around to take her place next to her husband. She left the house for him and took her kids with her. A few weeks later he stole their younger son and kept him with him. She asked him to give him back to her but he would not give it to her. If she had gone to court, the law would have taken the boy and given him to her but she did not want to take advantage of him while he was down.

Two years later he had stroke and one part of him became paralyzed  This woman hired nurses to watch over him for 24 hours everyday, however, she knew he would not accept this help if he knew it was her who is paying for them. So, she asked a mutual friend to say that he is the one who is doing him this favour. 

This woman did all these not because she expected him to do anything for her but because she loves him and her kids unconditionally. I don't know about you but if I was in her place,, I don't care if I would do that. So, that brought me back to the definition of unconditional love. It is loving someone without expecting anything. It is loving without wanting to change the person. It is accepting the person as he or she is.