That's an awesome story, OP.
I have a solution for you: play a 1 player game with your wife, alternating after each ball.
That's typically how my wife and I play ACDC. If you can earn an extra ball, it gives the other player another lifeline.
Strangely though, for Walking Dead, we just play a regular 2-player game.
Guess it depends on the game as maybe this works better for some titles than for others.