Lifetime of memories all gone

A lifetime of memories have disappeared in a heartbeat after a 92-year-old woman’s handbag was stolen from the Esplanade car park.

Debbie Boniface took her 92-year-old mum, Olive Cartwright, for a walk down at Palmerston North’s Victoria Esplanade on Wednesday afternoon and parked in the miniature railway car park.

When she came back to the car about 3pm she put her mum’s dog in the car, then her mum and then wrangled her mother’s wheelchair in.

She put her mum’s handbag on the ground while doing this and forgot to grab it before driving off.

Boniface said she went to the dairy to get the pair an ice-cream and that was when she realised she had forgotten it. She raced back, but by the time she arrived about 3.45pm it was already gone.

The bag contained both of their wallets as well as items of sentimental value to her mother, including a St Christopher that her father gave her for her 21st.

They had come from America, so Boniface said all her mother’s American cards were taken as well.

‘‘All her memories are in there, so for her I feel so gutted.

‘‘The devastation was written all over her face, but she is being good for me because she knows how upset I am.’’

The black leather handbag itself had been given to her mum by her sister when she died, so that also held sentimental value.

‘‘I’m crossing my fingers it comes back.’’

Boniface had informed the police and said the miniature railway had security cameras they were going to check to see if they had caught the offenders on there. She had also gone back to walk around the area and see if she could find anything that remained from the bag.

Anyone with information can contact the police.