JUNEAU, Alaska — The waiting is by far the hardest part.

But Bonnie Murphy isn’t giving up on finding her true love — her husband of nearly 40 years.

Jim Murphy is out there, somewhere, along with his twin brother, Joe Murphy, and three others who were destined for a fishing village near Sitka when their floatplane went missing Sept. 20.

The Gardiner woman and her sister-in-law, Jerry Murphy of Bremerton, have joined several family members in Sitka to launch active search efforts, even though search and rescue crews from the U.S. Coast Guard’s 17th District officially suspended their mission on Wednesday.

Bonnie says she was disappointed with that move, but not surprised.

“As family members, we expect it to be open-ended. Of course, it can’t be,” she said.

“We feel this will have a happy ending, though.”