9:17am Tuesday 15th August 2006
By Marcus Leroux
WHEN great-grandmother Anne Watts had her bag stolen it wasn't her bank cards and money she was worried about.
The handbag contained precious photographs and cherished mementoes of her son John, who died of cancer in November last year.
John, 49, of Grange Park, could not speak for the last two years of his life because he had a cancerous growth at the back of his tongue, so he used to write notes on scraps of paper to his mother.
Mrs Watts, 69, saved some of these notes at the time because they meant so much to her. But now she fears the priceless scraps of paper are gone for good.
The bag was taken from her two granddaughters' new home in Crombey Street as Mrs Watts was being shown around.
Mrs Watts, of Wroughton, said: "The photos are from when he was a baby right up until he died. They mean so much to me and they'd be worthless to anyone else. They are absolutely irreplaceable and I just want to get them back."
The written notes are equally important to Mrs Watts. "When he couldn't speak he used to scribble really fast on scraps of paper and then throw them in the bin. But I kept these ones especially.
"John wasn't a man who would describe his affections, but on this particular day he'd had a visit from my daughter Jane and her boys.
"They gave him a hug and a kiss. He wrote me a note saying how nice it was."
John's illness meant that he couldn't eat, drink or talk for two years, and had to be given nourishment through a feeding tube.
Mrs Watts said: "He went through hell. They worked really hard on him in Oxford and London, and I merrily thought he would be all right.
"That's why I treasure the pictures and writings so much.
"I can live without the keys and money and all the rest, but the personal things are much harder to take."
The bag was taken from the new home of Mrs Watts' twin 20-year-old granddaughters Katie and Gemma Watts at around 4.30pm on Friday.
"The five of us - Martin, the girls' father, the twins and a friend of theirs, plus myself were being shown around the house, and I left the bag in the kitchen.
"The thief must have seen it in the window and whipped in and nicked it."
Anyone who has information on the theft of Mrs Watts' bag is asked to call Swindon Police on 0845 408 7000 or call Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555111.
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