Britain’s oldest Twitter user, Ivy Bean, aged 104, has died peacefully in her sleep, leaving behind 62,030 devastated followers including several celebrities.
Ivy Tweeted her way to fame with her chatty updates from the care home in Bradford where she lived. The 104-year-old had updated Twitter with her daily life, often centred around what she ate, for the last two years.
“Had a visit from our sandra yesterday she brought some parkin which we had with our cuppa it was very nice pat had the biggest piece,” Ivy Tweeted on June 2nd.
Followed by: “yes parkin is like ginger cake”, and “she said because she is away on holiday next week she had to have double as she wont be here any excuse”
Ivy, a former mill worker, recently said: “Before I signed up to Twitter all I used to do was sit all day and fall asleep. I’d be miserable if I didn’t do it.”
Ivy built up a legion of followers on both Twitter and Facebook, including Sarah Brown, Chris Evans, Stephen Fry and Peter Andre.
Peter Andre formed an especially close friendship with the ‘silver surfer’ since they met last year and phoned hours before her death after hearing via Twitter that she was unwell.
Ivy’s friend Pat Wright (of the parkin fame), manager her care home said: “We all cried as he said on the loudspeaker, ‘Hello darling, it’s Peter’. “He told her he was thinking about her – and he loved her.”
Andre has since Tweeted: “I am very saddened to hear that Ivy has passed away.
“She was a lovely woman who had a brilliant sense of humour. We built up a special friendship and have stayed in touch since we met at one of my signings. I send my condolences to all of the family.”
Stephen Fry saluted “the divine @IvyBean104 … oldest twitterer.”
It was Pat who sent Ivy’s last Tweets, finally telling the 104-year-old’s followers: “ivy passed away peacefully at 12.08 this morning.”
