German cancer victim wanted to taste Penang's durian ice cream one last time
A faithful wife and her fellow Malaysians are saying a sad goodbye to the German they love - an 87-year-old second world war naval officer who is dying of lung cancer in a West Australian hospital.
Willi Hans Boehm arrived in Japanese-ruled Malaya in 1943 as a German naval officer assigned to help the Japanese build a submarine base on Penang Island.
He fell in love with Penang Island and a local Eurasian Chinese nurse, Agnes Vaz. But after the war, he was held prisoner in Singapore before leaving for a devastated Germany. In 1946, he managed to return to Penang and find and marry Agnes, whom he first met when he caught malaria and she nursed him back to health.
After they married the couple moved to Germany, but returned five years later and spent many years living in Penang.
They had six children and migrated to Perth in Western Australia but returned often to their beloved Penang.
Willi has cancer and doctors say he has a week or two to live. Agnes, 81, is constantly by his side.