Ivy Bean, the oldest person on Twitter, dies at 104

[ThePro]

In 1,000 tweets the centenarian entertained her 56,000 followers with posts about food, family and meeting Gordon Brown


Ivy Bean loved to tweet about her favourite fish and chips. Photograph: Bob Collier/PA

The oldest person on Twitter died today, after over 1,000 tweets documenting numerous fish and chip dinners, several episodes of Deal or No Deal and a friendship with Peter Andre.

Ivy Bean, 104, began tweeting last year from her residential home in the outskirts of Bradford, and amassed over 56,000 followers with posts telling of food, family visits, and even an invitation from Gordon Brown to meet the then prime minister in Downing Street.

Ivy had fallen ill last month, and her followers had been kept updated by Pat, the manager of Hillside Manor, over the last few weeks. It was Pat who bore the bad news today.

"Ivy passed away peacefully at 12.08 this morning," she wrote just after 10am, adding: "I'm sorry it took me so long to tell you but it was a very difficult thing to do".

Ivy had originally become an internet sensation through Facebook, before switching to Twitter last year.

Her insights into life in a care home warmed the hardest social media user, as she explained the nuances of northern bakery products – clarifying that parkin "is like ginger cake", wished tweeters happy birthday and kept readers updated on her consumption of her favourite meal: fish and chips.

The great grandmother even struck up an unlikely friendship with Peter Andre, meeting him last year and again last month – describing the singer as "wonderful".

Other celebrity friends included Gordon Brown, whom Ivy described as "really nice", and One Foot in the Grave actor Richard Wilson ("a right laugh").

Followers had perhaps been braced for the worst after a six-day silence from Ivy in early June was broken by Pat informing tweeters that she had been taken ill.

The care home manager kept followers updated as Ivy suffered from jaundice in hospital – updating that a staff member from Hillside Manor had sneaked her in some fish and chips, earlier this month, before writing last Friday that Ivy had returned to the care home.

A further post promised Ivy would return to tweeting this Monday, but the message proved premature, and Twitter's oldest user passed away in the small hours of this morning.

Despite Ivy having been unable to post for almost two months, the sight of "Ivy Bean" trending worldwide less than an hour after the announcement of her death seemed a fitting tribute to a woman whose warmth and simple enjoyment of life proved such a draw to so many.

Source: The Guardian

[2348z]

That's truly sad