The mother of missing Tullamore hairdresser Fiona Pender said yesterday she still retains the "tiniest, tiniest glimmer of hope" that her daughter may return.
Mrs Josephine Pender said, however, that that hope is fading because she knows that her daughter, who was seven months pregnant when she disappeared in August 1996, would make contact with her if she could.
In an emotional interview on Midlands Radio, Mrs Pender said Fiona was not only her daughter but also her best friend, who had always confided in her.
"We were very, very close and there was nothing I did not know about her life. She would not be out there now knowing how much we need her," she said.
If Fiona was able she would make contact either with her, her father or her brother John.
"She is just not out there willingly without making contact," said Mrs Pender.
Her son Mark had died only a few months before his sister disappeared.
"Christmas is going to be very, very hard. It's a family time with people coming home and children coming home and I am not going to have mine," she said.
Her family was very satisfied with the work being done by the Gardai to find her daughter.
"The public would not know, but we know that every scrap of information is investigated. There has been a great deal of manpower including helicopter searches and the FCA and other bodies looking for her."
Mrs Pender appealed to anyone who had any information, no matter how insignificant it appeared to be, to go to the Garda, where it would be investigated in full confidence.