Yes, written checks are never officially "stale". I have also found small paychecks over 5 years old and deposited them with no problem. If you write a check that goes missing, your only safe recourse is to close the account.
As for Stop Payments, as others have said they are only good for 6 months and then you have to pay another fee for another 6 months. And so on. For large checks people sometimes do a Stop Payment twice, but rarely more than that. That's why you often see them deposited 13-14 months after getting "lost".
It's not forgetfulness, it's a scam.
https://watchdognation.com/stop-payment-check-scam/
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20060601/031244.shtml
One thing you can do is write "Void in 180 days" on all checks. Then a stop payment only needs to be done once.