... he blatantly refused the request.
I feel so sad about it and have refused talking to him now, but on a second thought I decided to seek the opinion of the high rank member.
Please can you deny your wife just 1 merit to rank up to Jr member?...
I would sit down with my wife, give her tips and advise on how to improve her forum experience. I will work with her very closely and will help her to make good posts. If she is curious and teachable then she will learn. She will make good posts then I will not have any issue to award her merit. In-fact, she won't need to depend on me, she will start getting merits from the forum members.