A grieving man was sent a letter reminding him the love of his life was dead.

Shocked Bernard Dawes, of Sompting Road, Lancing, said he was “disgusted” to receive a letter addressed to “Mrs M Ladu (deceased)” yesterday.

Mr Dawes and his partner Mary Ladu had always enjoyed going to theatre.

They had joined the Worthing Theatres membership scheme so they could find out about all the performances and special offers.

When Ms Ladu died in February, Mr Dawes no longer felt like going to the theatre alone and asked for their details to be removed from the council-run theatres’ list.

However, yesterday he was sent the offending letter from Worthing Theatres three days before what would have been Ms Ladu’s 73rd birthday.

Mr Dawes, 77, said: “We used to like going to the theatre but it is no fun on your own. We were partners for 24 years and it would have been her birthday this weekend, which makes it especially hard.

“Mary died in February and I went down to the Pavilion Theatre some time in March and asked them not to send the leaflets any more.

“As far as I was aware the girl I spoke to did that and took her name off the computer. I watched her do it.

“When the envelope arrived I couldn’t believe it. This is diabolical.

I am disgusted they would do this.

“It is hard enough getting by onmyown but when people are this thoughtless it doesn’t help.

Someone must have seen the envelope before it was sent out.

“What makes it even worse was it was a leaflet for a special offer of two tickets for £10 but that’s not much use to me either.

“It is really heartbreaking to have them treat her death this casually.

“I phoned them up to complain and they just passed me on to someone else and I didn’t feel they were taking me seriously.”

A spokeswoman for Worthing Theatres said last night: “Mr Dawes did contact us this morning at which point we apologised profusely.

“We have issued a written apology and are terribly sorry for the distress this has caused.

“Unfortunately we have an outdated box office system which is in the process of being replaced but have ensured Mr Dawes his details have been amended and offer our condolences for his loss.”

DISGUSTED: Bernard Dawes was shocked by the letter emily.walker@theargus.co.uk