As Peter Argyle sits at the bedside of the woman he loves, he knows deep down that she will never recover from the horrific injuries she suffered in a car crash – or see their little boy grow up.
As he chats to her about the latest happenings in the world, he is resigned to the fact Natalia probably does not recognise him, and is unaware they have a beautiful son.
The top north-east councillor has taken the heartbreaking decision to move the 46-year-old into care after specialists told him she is unlikely to ever get better.
She would have died had it not been for the very same accident and emergency staff she was working alongside just days before her car and a truck collided.
The Aberdeen Royal Infirmary anaesthetist has been unable to move or speak since suffering devastating injuries in the smash.
Councillor Argyle is now facing the “new reality” of bringing up the couple’s three-year-old son himself.
Knowing his wife will never work again, he has also decided to cancel her registration with the General Medical Council.
Mr Argyle, who represents Aboyne, Upper Deeside and Donside on Aberdeenshire Council, said: “Natalia is in what is called a minimally conscious state.
“Her eyes are open and she can see – they have done detailed tests on her brain function and they know that she can follow movement.
“But as for the more fundamental things – such as does she know who I am? Does she know who she is? Does she know she has a beautiful son? The answer is probably no.
“When I go to see her she doesn’t smile, her face doesn’t change. She doesn’t register who I am.”
Mrs Argyle was driving from Aberdeen to the couple’s home at Torphins, near Banchory, when her car was involved in a crash with a white DAF lorry on November 22, 2013.
Her husband was at home at the time with their son – then aged just 21 months – when police arrived to tell him what had happened.
His wife suffered a broken ankle, broken pelvis and a “heavy blow” to her head in the accident, which happened at the Kirkton of Skene junction, on the outskirts of Westhill.
Doctors initially hoped she would recover, but more than a year on they have come to accept she may never get any better.
Mr Argyle said: “Medically she’s in a good state – her bones and other injuries have healed – but there has been almost no progress.
“The next stage is to move her into residential care.”
Their son does not know about the accident, nor has he been to visit his mother at Woodend Hospital in Aberdeen.
However, the youngster helps his father hang her nightclothes on the line when they are brought home to be washed.
Mr Argyle now balances council work with frequent visits to his wife’s bedside and raising his child.
“I tell her what’s been happening in the big bad world and tell her what her boy’s been up to,” he said.
“I just hope that she, somewhere, can understand what I’m talking about.”
Mr Argyle said he could only live in the present – “the future is a closed book” – but is determined to stay strong for his son, who has carried him through the darkest of days.
“The house would be horribly empty if he wasn’t around,” he said.
“The sad reality is Natalia won’t see him grow up, and that is the exact counterbalance to the huge pride and happiness I have in him.
“The huge sorrow I have that she won’t be there to share all of that – the milestones, the birthdays, the potty training and all the good things.
“He has got a great deal of Natalia’s beauty, a good deal of her brains, and a huge amount of her determination.
“She would be proud of him too, but she’s missing it all. I fear, and think I probably know, she won’t see any of it.”
Mr Argyle said the time would come when he has to tell his son that his mother is still alive.
“I can’t plan how I’m going to introduce that subject or how I’m going to make him aware that mum’s still around, but I’ll have to do it at some point,” he said.
“There is nothing to be gained from taking him to see her just now, to see someone who looks like his mama, but who can’t respond.
“The other aspect is if there is a little piece of Natalia’s brain that is aware of more than we know, and she saw him there and couldn’t respond, then that would be horrible for her.”
Mrs Argyle, who is originally from Russia, moved to the UK 13 years ago.
She had been an experienced and highly qualified anaesthetist in Minsk, in Belarus, and became a fellow of the UK’s Royal College of Anaesthetists in 2012.
“I could spend hours thinking about how hard she worked to get to the position of being in the NHS,” said her husband.
“Building a life here, having a child here, she had it all. Then suddenly it’s all gone.”
Christmas without Natasha
Mr Argyle said his second Christmas without Natalia by his side was incredibly difficult to come to terms with.
“In 2013 she had just moved out of intensive care – what was different this Christmas was the change in expectation,” he said.
“A year ago there was still hope that she might make some progress. The neurosurgeon was reasonably optimistic and confident that she would make some progress. But the signs never came.”
Mr Argyle said there was no point living with false hope that she would pull through.
“I have no expectations. I’d rather live with the reality than have false hope. The reality is she will not make any progress. That’s what I have to come to terms with,” he said.
“I could think about what if the lorry driver had left wherever he’d been before 10 seconds earlier, but these ifs are completely meaningless. I’ve never looked for anyone to blame.
“I just hope that the other driver has recovered from what must have been a horribly traumatic experience.
“There is absolutely no blame whatsoever. It’s just an absolutely horrible accident. Life is unfair and cruel and it can be very unkind.”
Mr Argyle, who is also deputy chairman of Aberdeen City and Shire’s regional transport partnership Nestrans, also thanked the medics for everything they had done for his wife, and the family and friends who have made life a little bit easier.
He said: “All of them at Woodend – from the cleaners, to the nurses, doctors, physiotherapists, speech therapist – they have all been absolutely tremendous.
“They combine real professionalism with real humanity. I have nothing but praise for them.
“I know that a lot of people really care.”