I was able to supply a list of the most common passwords I was using during that period, and it was the one I suspected, *with an additional forgotten special character.  I'm not sure how long my CPU would have taken, but FlayFly's GPU made short work of it.  I do believe an electrum upgrade originally made me set a password, or possibly created an error, but it's quite possible my human memory messed up remembering it too.  I had quite a long period of non-software/electrum usage, and it has been "locked" ever since.  His fee was more reasonable than some other "professional" sites, and was much more personal/just as professional.  Kudos to him, his service, and his wallet.  I hope we all prosper in some way.