World's oldest Twitter user, Ivy Bean, dies at 104, was 'an inspiration'
It was a sad day on Twitter today as the world's oldest Twitter user, Ivy Bean passed away. She was 104. Ivy had sent out over 1,000 tweets in her year of using Twitter.
What did the elderly lady with the infectious smile from Bradford in the UK tweet about?
That would be her favorite dinner - fish and chips (@ivybean104 Its friday today fish and chips day), and the episodes of Deal or No Deal she watched.
Ivy Bean even had a friendship with singer Peter Andre. She met him once last year and again last month.
Gordon Brown, the prime minister at the time, invited her to visit. She later tweeted that she got to use the PM's private "loo" (bathroom), reported the Washington Post
And the great lady was very popular. She had over 56,000 followers. She had joined Facebook at 102, says Yahoo News but later turned to Twitter so she could have more followers.
Ivy Bean told the New York Daily News that she "loved being online."
The lovable great-grandmother has seen a lot of change in her lifetime. When Ivy Bean was born telegrams were the fastest way of communicating and a national telephone network was still seven years away. Ivy would have to wait 46 years until the first computer was invented, reports the UK's Daily Mail
Since Twitter is a worldwide form of social media, Ivy was able to educate other Twitter users. Not everyone would be familiar with what a "parkin" was so she explained: "it's like a ginger cake."
And tweeting became quite the way of life for Ivy, it really added something to her day. Before she got into Twitter Ivy said: "All I used to do was sit all day and fall asleep. I'd be miserable if I didn't do it."
"You could not dislike Ivy," said Mrs Pat Wright to the BBC : "She didn't have a bad word to say about anybody. She was a real lady, an inspiration."
And keeping active and inspiring was something Ivy Bean liked to do. In fact she won a gold medal last year at the home's Over-75 Olympics in the frisbee-throwing category. And she enjoyed bowling on the home's Nintendo Wii, reports CNN
The great grandmother however went quiet for six days and followers felt bad news was on the horizon.
Mrs. Pat Wright, manager at the residential home, Hillside Manor, tweeted that Ivy had indeed been taken ill and she had gone to hospital suffering from jaundice.
Sadly, Ivy joined the great failwhale in the sky early this morning.
"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".
Perhaps as a fitting tribute to the world's oldest Twitter user, Ivy Bean became a trending topic around the world within an hour of her death being mentioned.
RIP Verified User @ivybean104, you were the sweetest BFF for so many loyal followers. God bless you.
Follow Sheila on, of course, Twitter
Feel free to comment on World's oldest Twitter user, Ivy Bean, dies at 104, was 'an inspiration'
San Francisco residents can follow this and other news stories on KTVU. The news comes on in San Francisco at 5pm, 6pm and 10pm.
Comments