I hear ya on the long haul thing .. and the patience required of us all... I think if we could be given a gift and told .. "ok you have till Jan 5th till this is over we all could just circle the calendar and ride it out. But we dont know ... like you said "long time .. if ever" But all we can do is hold on to the little positives and hope.
Hang in there... at the least she is starting to question things ... and the OM is losing his sparkle ... this is a good thing!