(CNN) -- For 49 days, Rita Chretien waited for a miracle.
Her husband had ventured off to get help three days after their minivan got stranded off-road in the cold, untamed Nevada wilderness.
That left Rita alone without much beyond some hard candy, a long-ago emptied bag of trail mix, some books and the clothes she'd packed for her trip to Las Vegas. Plus, according to her son Raymond Chretien, she always had faith.
Scores of men and women had searched for Rita and her husband Albert Chretien, since the Penticton, British Columbia, residents were last seen March 19 leaving a Shell gas station convenience store in Baker City, Oregon.
On Friday, hunters wandered into the remote territory near where Oregon, Idaho and Nevada meet.
Rita Chretien shot up from her spot in the 2000 Chevrolet Astro's backseat when she heard them outside, mustered her lingering strength to open the door and step out shoeless. She waved.
Three days later, she was resting comfortably in an Idaho hospital, spending Mother's Day with her children.
"Right now, we're just celebrating," said her son, Raymond, on Sunday.
Even the doctor who oversaw Chretien's care at St. Luke's Magic Valley Medical Center in Twin Falls, Idaho, acknowledged it was not easy to explain how a 56-year-old woman could have such a positive prognosis and demeanor given what she'd gone through.
"In this case, for a person with suboptimal nutrition to survive so long -- let's just say that it is understandable to call it a miracle," Dr. James Westberry told reporters Sunday.
The search, meanwhile, continues for Albert Chretien.
While rainy and overcast weather forced authorities to call off the first day's air search, Corp. Dan Moskaluk of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Saturday that a search dog and about 20 people, riding 6 to 8 ATVs and four-wheel drive vehicles are on the case.
While the odds are dwindling that Albert Chretien will be found alive, authorities certainly are not ruling it out, said the police spokesman.
"Neither family nor investigators would have thought that we'd be reporting after seven weeks of actually finding somebody alive," said Moskaluk. "Until we know exactly what happened to Al, it remains a mystery."
Rita and Albert Chretian were together when, after their stop in Baker City (recorded on the store's surveillance tape), they turned off the highway onto a forest service road that led into Nevada.
They were en route to a trade show convention in Las Vegas, but veered off to enjoy the "scenic route," said her son, who'd heard the full story from his ailing mother.
The couple took some wrong turns and had thought, based on their map, that their road was better than it was.
Then, about 20 miles from the highway, "apparently the road conditions ... degraded quite drastically," said Moskaluk, the police spokesman.
By the time darkness fell, the minivan succumbed to the combination of snow and mud, unable to move.
On March 22, Albert Chretien left the van, setting off to get help. His wife, who Raymond Chretien said is "not an outdoorsy type of person," remained behind.
Rita Chretian rationed the little food available -- a beef jerky, some trail mix, fish oil pills, and one piece of hard candy per day. She'd go outside for a walk once a day, using the sunlight to melt snow for drinking water and going to a nearby stream.
In the meantime, she had plenty of time to read a few books (some multiple times), the Bible and record her thoughts and adventures in a journal.
"She did it because she didn't know the outcome of this," her son said, adding that he had not yet read the journal. "It was intended to sort of tell the story what happened over (those) days."
All the while, Rita Chretien got weaker, losing 20 to 30 pounds, according to Moskaluk.
Her son said that, in her last few days in the wild, she'd come to peace with the sense that her time was dwindling. She penciled May 6 as a critical day in her mind: -- either she'd be rescued or she'd die.
"She definitely had hope. But of course, just like us, every day goes by, you start preparing yourself for both options," her son said. "So she was prepared for either."
After her discovery, Rita Chretien was airlifted to the Idaho hospital.
There, doctors worked first to address her starvation and dehydration, then to build up her ability to eat meals again and gain strength.
By Sunday, Dr. Westberry said he still hadn't seen her walk, but said there were no indications of long-term problems and that her prognosis was good. Her spirits and evident desire to live, he said, were even better.
"It is unusual for us to see someone in this type of situation to actually not only survive, but to be doing so well at this time," said Westberry. "She obviously had the mindset of survival, and that must have been something that helped her go as long as she did."
For her son, the best thing was how little his mother had changed after her ordeal. She laughed just the same, and was just as warm, genuine and caring as she'd always been, he said.
"I would have hardly known anything had happened to her," he said. "It was just beyond belief. It's just her. It's amazing."CNN's Greg Botelho and Rick Martin contributed to this report.
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