While there is still even a shred of hope, the family of missing Fiona Sinnott must deny themselves the natural process of mourning.
This Sunday, 24 weeks will have elapsed since the Co Wexford teenager, mother of a baby daughter, went missing without trace, despite exhaustive searches and investigations by the Garda and her family.
The anguish of her parents, brothers and sisters can scarcely be imagined, except by the small group of people who share a similar experience of endless doubt, worry and uncertainty about a missing loved one.
They are torn between an increasing sense that the worst must have happened and a faint but precious hope that she may still be alive somewhere. The intensity of the Garda operation since the 19year-old vanished last February 8th has gone far beyond the treatment usually accorded to a routine missing person case.
It points to a strong suspicion that she would not voluntarily have left her baby daughter Emma, now 17 months, and failed to make subsequent contact with her family.
It also reflects the strange circumstance - particularly for a close-knit rural area - that there has not been a single verified sighting of her since the night she left a local bar with her former boyfriend and father of her child, Mr Sean Carroll, to return to her rented cottage at Ballycushlane.
Gardai have been told she was still in the house when he left it the following morning, February 9th, but as far as subsequent inquiries can determine, she was not seen again.
The couple had separated some months before Fiona went missing, but continued to see each other socially. Emma is being cared for by an Mr Carroll's parents at Coddstown, Killinick, about four miles from Ballycushlane. She had frequently been minded there at weekends and her grandmother is said to have developed a very close bond with the child from the time she was born.
In their search for Fiona, gardai carried out house-to-house inquiries, set up checkpoints and interviewed hundreds of people, including Mr an Carroll. A special team of detectives from Dublin joined local gardai in the search, a dog unit was used, and a sub-aqua team checked ponds and marl holes over a wide area.
"We had a very good search team here, and we kept them here for weeks," said a Garda source. In a major operation, the extensive Our Lady's Island lake was drained and searched. Nothing useful has been found.
Ferry terminals and train and bus station staff have been interviewed and hundreds of posters with Fiona's photograph circulated throughout the region. At least five self-styled clairvoyants have offered their services but their suggestions led to nothing.
Interviewed at her home in the village of Bridgetown, nearly 10 miles west of Ballycushlane, Fiona's mother, Mrs Mary Sinnott, refuses to abandon hope. "We don't know what to think," she says. "We don't want to suspect death - that's the last thing that's going to enter our minds."
Distraught though she is, Mrs Sinnott realises there are other people who have been waiting for years for news of missing family members. "I'd love to meet the people in my situation - just to share our feelings," she says. "It mightn't do much good, but if only to talk about it. We are very seriously worried but we have to cope and keep going."
Before she disappeared, Fiona had been in good spirits and was planning a shopping trip to Waterford to buy accessories for the forthcoming 21st birthday celebrations of her sister, Diane. She had been looking forward very much to that occasion, but the birthday, and the subsequent first birthday of Emma, passed without any contact from her.
Diane says that her sister would not have missed the birthdays "for the world". Fiona's main interest from an early age was in being a chef. She had trained in a FAS centre and worked in catering jobs locally. She regularly baked cakes and puddings for the family.
The family's distress is compounded, they say, because they have not been able to maintain a lot of contact with their granddaughter since Fiona's mysterious disappearance.
Mrs Sinnott could not bring herself to go to Our Lady's Island when the lake was being searched. An ancient pilgrimage place, and an important and scenic habitat of protected wildlife, it attracts thousands of devotional visitors in August and September. "But it holds that gloom over it since this happened," Mrs Sinnott says.
Gardai insist Fiona's disappearance is still classed strictly as a missing person case, although they are treating it very seriously. Although rumours of all kinds have been rife in the locality, no hard evidence has emerged to back up any of them.
Although the most diligent inquiries so far have drawn a blank, the case is by no means dormant. A reconstruction of Fiona's movements in the days before her disappearance has been broadcast on Crimeline and the gardai continue to appeal to any members of the public who have information to telephone them at Wexford station. The number is (05322333).