Frazer, speaking for the first time in detail about Zhou's death, said he had urged him to see a doctor. But, as his condition deteriorated, Zhou apparently resolved to turn his back on western medicine.

"He went back to China in the belief that maybe his problem could be sorted out by going to (traditional) Chinese doctors," Frazer recalled yesterday.

No one could talk him out of it. "He had obviously been to see a doctor (in Brisbane) and I don't know what ... went on," Frazer said. "Jian was the sort of person that ... once he made up his mind, that was it. He made it very clear to me that going to China was the best thing to do."

Xiao-Yi said she had no inkling her then 42-year-old husband was so desperately ill. Soon after arriving in China, he telephoned to say he was feeling unwell, though not worryingly so. "I thought it might be the flu, or something," she said yesterday, before meeting Frazer to finalise arrangements for today's service.

Within days, she received another call from China, this time from a hospital: Zhou was in a critical condition and not expected to survive. The cause of death was later reported to be toxic shock -- a diagnosis the medically trained Xiao-Yi is not happy with. "I still don't really know what happened," she said, her voice choked with emotion.