A north east man died just hours after telling his wife in an emotional phone call that she would be better off without him.
Michael Nolan walked out of the couple’s home after announcing halfway through their evening meal that he was leaving.
And his distraught wife Yvonne revealed last night she feared the worst even before she reported him missing.
The 56-year-old said her husband of 25 years was a loving, caring man – but that decades of crippling disabilities had turned him into a recluse.
Police revealed on Wednesday night that Mr Nolan had vanished from his home in Fraserburgh’s High Street.
He was driving the couple’s red Nissan Juke.
His body was found in the early hours of yesterday in the Banff area.
His death is not being treated as suspicious.
Mrs Nolan said the 60-year-old, who was originally from London, was a “lovely man”.
She said: “He had a spine problem and was on crutches and in the last three years he had several heart attacks.
“He was getting more and more down, depressed and withdrawn.
“There was nothing the doctors could do for him. His heart had deteriorated so much that he was basically living on medication.
“We didn’t know how long he had left.”
She said that her husband made the decision to leave when he was having his supper on Tuesday.
She said: “He was having his tea, at about six o’clock and he just got up and said he’d had enough.
“He asked me to pack him a bag and I said I wouldn’t. He did it himself, I wasn’t going to argue with him because of his heart, and he took the car out. I told him not to go.
“Then, just before eight o’clock, I got a phone call from him. I didn’t know where he was, but I could hear a lot of traffic.
“He said ‘I think it will be better for the both of us, you can find someone else. You’ll be happy, I know you’ll be fine’ and put the phone down.
“That was it. The police reckon not long after that he laid down and died.”
Mrs Nolan said: “I was desperate, I didn’t want anything to happen to him. I didn’t believe he could do this. I was going insane with worry, but I knew even before they found him he’d be dead.
“In two days I’ve had about four hours sleep.”
Mrs Nolan said her husband had been badly injured in an accident on a construction site when he was younger.
She said: “He came off a building before we got married and hurt his back and over the years it just got worse and worse.
“I got him a mobility scooter after his first heart attack but that didn’t last long.
“We moved here from Portsmouth about 14 years ago to have a quieter, better life. I just don’t know what to do next.”
Mr Nolan, who once sold cars in California for a career, is survived by his wife and three children from a previous marriage.