When Gill Malona talks about her husband, Hans Su, her face lights up. She was working her first job at a local Chinese joint at age 17 more than a decade ago when she asked her friend about the new guy, and two words caught her attention. Gill Malona’s face lights up when she talks about her husband, Hans Su, who died in October 2022 at age 29.
Credit: Joe Armao “She’s like, ‘he’s Asian and he’s really tall ’,” Gill says with a laugh. “We met in the back room over there, so unglamorous — I was packing prawn crackers with dirty, oily gloves on.” We’re sitting in a green booth at the same restaurant at Berwick in Melbourne’s south-east, Roast’d Chinese BBQ & Duck, where the couple met all those years ago.
Hans was a 19-year-old university student at the time. He was flustered, rushing to meet their boss, when he went to shake Gill’s hand. She had to turn him down, awkwardly raising her oily gloves.
“They’ve actually renovated so much since that time but it still feels so familiar,” Gill says. Gill is now 29, and she and Hans have an 18-month-old daughter, Olivia, who keeps her busy. Only, Hans isn’t here to help raise her.
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