Having given chase following the assault in Alice Wylie Reserve in Mt Albert, the suburb's former deputy mayor had to wave down a passing car to call police and an ambulance.
"I can't believe it. There's an air of unreality about it," she said yesterday.
While surveying the park for ways it could be improved just before midday on Friday, a smiling man had approached Ms Wylie and said good morning.
But next thing the great-grandmother knew, the man turned "evil", ripping away her handbag and tearing the skin completely off the back of her left hand.
"He was very pleasant. He was a very big chap. He was well dressed and he had a good haircut. He had a pleasant expression."
She said the man said good morning to her and smiled.
Then things turned nasty.
"I have seen a lot of things, but I have never seen evil before. By the time he reached me, he reached across to grab my bag. We were almost eye to eye and I could never have imagined an expression could change so fast.
"When he was pulling my bag, he turned and looked evil."
She immediately knew her hand was in a bad way but gave chase anyway, shouting for help to stop the man. But she couldn't keep up.
"Because I'm short and he's tall, and he had very long legs. And my word was he fast. [Then] I was standing in the street, dripping blood, and I waved down a car.
"It [the wound] was spectacular. It was absolutely gore. It was all completely raw and dripping."
Police and an ambulance arrived. The police hunted for the offender but were unable to locate him or the handbag.
Paramedics were unable to treat the wound and the nonagenarian was taken to hospital.
She waited about four hours before she was seen by a surgeon, who peeled back and reset her skin with stitches and butterfly stitches.
The elderly but active woman said the hardest part was not being able to drive. Although she still can't really believe that she was victimised, and in a park that bears her name which she has fought hard to improve over the years, she won't back down.
"One can't live in fear. I have every intention of recovering well."
A police spokeswoman said officers "took details of a man in the park at the time" and the investigation was ongoing.
By Sam Boyer of the New Zealand Herald
