Woman, 90s, offers guarded thanks

A woman, in her 90s, offers thanks to the man who retrieved and returned her handbag, which she had left in a shopping trolley.

An elderly woman is torn between expressing her grateful thanks to a man who rescued her forgotten handbag and worrying her family will think she cannot live independently.

The woman, in her 90s, wanted to thank the man in a letter to the Editor after she left her handbag on a trolley at the end of a shopping trip to The Warehouse on Friday.

But with Letters to the Editor requiring writers' names, she asked the editor if she could at least thank the man anonymously in a story so that her family wouldn't make judgments about her ability to live her life.

The woman said she had become irritated at The Warehouse after failing to attract the attention of a shop assistant to help her with an item.

Distracted, she paid for her other items at the till and took them in a bag, then pushed the trolley back into its rack - still with her handbag in it.

A "gentleman and his daughter" spotted what she had done and retrieved the bag.

"I was so shocked I don't think I thanked him properly," she said. "It's heartening to know there are still honest folk."

She was distressed she had done something "so stupid."

"I've never done something like that before. I was extremely lucky."

The woman, a mobility scooter user, said she was "a very independent person"

She hoped her rescuer would read this piece.