A GRIEVING pensioner had fond memories of her late husband snatched away when a heartless thief grabbed her bag.

Eunice Howard, 81, from Abingdon, who is recovering from an eye operation and awaiting further surgery, last night made a tearful appeal to the thief to return her husband’s driving licence, wallet, bank book and magnifying glass.

Her husband Malcolm, the clerk of works at Keble College, Oxford, until his retirement, died in April of pneumonia.

His widow, a former BT worker, said: “It was these things that really got me. It is the sentimental value of them, I was absolutely devastated. I have lost my husband of 60 years and now I have lost all my things to remember him.

“It was our life together. His driving licence has got his photograph and I want to get it back.

“We had just had our 60th wedding anniversary, we were married on his 21st birthday, and he died on April 2. I nursed him for three years at home because he had Parkinson’s disease.”

Mrs Howard, who walks with a frame, was in the Bury Street toilets in Abingdon when the thief took her bag, at about 2pm on Friday, September 9.

She said: “I walk with a three wheel walker, and I was washing my hands with the bag tied around the handle of the frame.

“I came out of the toilets and went to the charity shop. I went to pay for something and I realised that my bag was not there.

“Somebody has taken it. That is not very honest and perhaps her friends will think ‘where has she got all this money from?’ “What can I say? I can just appeal to her conscience.”

The pensioner has assumed the thief is a woman because the theft happened in the women’s toilets, but said she could not give police a full description.

She is hoping that if someone spots the black leather shoulder bag discarded nearby they will hand it into the police.

Mrs Howard said: “The bag is really soft leather and about 10 by six inches. The police said they will check the CCTV, but I have not heard anything.”

Speaking of their lives together Mrs Howard said: “Malcolm was lovely. At the end he had health problems and that was quite difficult for three years. I would just like to have his things back.”

* Police have asked anyone with information to call them on 08458 505505 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.