'˜One-in-a million' Ivy dies aged at 107-years-old

Ivy Leonard celebrated her 107th birthday in May, surrounded by her family at the Glen Tanar care home on Cavendish Road, Bispham.

She died of natural causes on July 7.

Ivy survived against all odds when she was hit by a police car in Layton when she was 93-years-old.

Her grandson, Andy Smart, said: “Ivy really was more than one in a million with so many stories that we can tell – she just never gave up. When my nana was seriously injured in the car accident, when lying there in what we expected would be her last few hours she put her hand on my wife’s heavily pregnant stomach and said the words ‘I will see my first great grandchild’, and she meant it.”

She lived to see the births of four great-grandchildren, and the marriages of both her grandsons.

Andy said: “She went through stages in her last few months where she would be asleep for a few days on end with my mum, Anne, at her side.

“We always thought that was it – but at the third day, she would wake up, ask why she is not up when it’s daylight and demand her breakfast and go back to normal.”

Lorraine Ferguson, manager at the Glen Tanar care home where Ivy lived, said: “She was our oldest resident. She was full of fun and a very lively lady.

“She was the life and soul of the place.”

Ivy’s funeral will take place on July 24 at the at Carleton Crematorium at 2pm.