IT IS a moment of pure tenderness as a man watches the woman he loves struggle with the disease tearing them apart.
Rory West springs off his seat, putting a brace around wife Elly's neck to make her more comfortable.
Then, he reaches for a tissue to wipe away her tears.
"I love you," he tells her. "I love you too and I'm sorry," she says, as he reaches out for her hand.
Since December, the couple, who have an eight-year-old daughter, Poppy, have lived with the realisation that Motor Neurone Disease (MND) will rob them of the chance to grow old together.
The couple both went to St Mary's College in north Hull when they were teenagers but Mr West was two years older, so they never met.
Instead, they fell in love when she got a job working behind the bar of the Waterloo Tavern in Great Union Street, Hull.
They discovered Mrs West was pregnant after they had set a date for their wedding on July 23, 2006. But she went into labour after problems with her placenta and Poppy was born ten weeks early, weighing just 2lbs 6oz.
They were told their daughter would not survive but she did. They were told Poppy would have lifelong development problems but she did not.
But now, they are facing their biggest battle after Mrs West became the 39th person in East Yorkshire to be diagnosed with the rare and incurable neurological condition.
According to NHS figures, MND affects about two in every 100,000 people each year in the UK. There are about 5,000 people living with the condition in the UK at any one time.
"It really frustrates me," says Mrs West, 35. "Poppy fought to be here after we were told she wasn't going to make it.
"I want to fight this with everything I have got but I haven't got a chance of beating it."
This is a family full of love and surrounded by love. Friends and relatives are never far from their sides.
People at Dove House Hospice have become their friends as the couple make major changes to their home in east Hull and their lives. It is the bitterest irony that the couple used to raise funds for the hospice.
While Mrs West lives with the terrible knowledge that she won't see her daughter grow up, her thoughts are only for her husband and child. There is no trace of self-pity, just the grief of a woman knowing time is running out.
Already, she is busying herself with paperwork, transferring everything into her husband's name for the time when she is gone.
Her tears are not for herself but for them.
"I'm going to have lots of people fussing around me so I'm OK," she says. "I just really worry about Rory and Poppy.
"I took Poppy up to bed the other night and I said I might put my jammies on, too. She had bought me jammies for Christmas but they have buttons and I can't manage buttons anymore.
"She said she'd help me get undressed and I got a bit tearful and said how sorry I was that she had to do this for me. "She just said 'Well, you've done it for me for lots of years, Mummy.'
"I know I can't save Poppy from the pain but I want her to know how much she is loved. And I adore my husband and I want Rory to be happy again when I'm gone."
Mr West, 37, took the day off work at Ideal Boilers the day after his wife's diagnosis, but he goes out to work every day to support his family.
"I contacted some people at work so the jungle drums would do the rest because I didn't want people coming up to me to ask how my wife was when I got back," he said. "What I did get was so many people, everyone from the shop floor to the canteen staff and the managers, tapping me on the shoulder to say they were here for us. It meant so much."
The support of staff at Poppy's school, who have arranged counselling for her, and the medical staff and Dove House Hospice helps them through the days.
"It is very overwhelming to realise how many people do care about you," said Mrs West.
The love he feels for his wife shines through the tears in Mr West's eyes. While there is no cure yet for MND, he will never give up hoping for one.
"More and more people are surviving cancer so why not this?" he says. "We still have that glimmer of hope."
There is no way of knowing how long the family have left together. Whether weeks, months or years, it will be packed full of laughter, love and happy memories.
Thanks to their friends raising more than £2,300 through crowdfunding web page www.gofundme.com/jhjmb8, the couple are planning trips to London and Scotland with Poppy and a photoshoot of them together. It is what she will have to look back on.
"For us, this year will be the year we make memories," said Mrs West.
