Many of us did similar in the 90s. I might go this route again but would use Postfix and Dovecot. I'd do this for my wife and kids as well - but if I get hit by a bus, email eventually not working is not something I should burden my wife with.
I worry about the same things which is why I'm actually migrating my email to outlook.con slowly (in spite of the NSA etc). She knows my passwords already.