The demolition timer is far too short in my opinion. I have been playing mmos for a very long time and I can tell you it's far from unusual for people to be unable to log on for about a month. The timer should be 90 days instead, that would be far more reasonable.

Gotta ask OP though, why didn't you just get your wife to log in on your account? I know this is technically account sharing and it's against the terms of use, but in this case your account wouldn't have been at risk at all and SE would be none the wiser. I know several people who got friends and family members to log in on their accounts to reset the timer.

Edit: reread OP's post again, perhaps financial issues prevented someone else logging in for him. Sucks