'Too stubborn to die': Meet the woman born prematurely defying all odds to reach 100th birthday

Westmoreland. P.E.I., resident Annie Leard has hit the century mark, and is still in great health. Not bad for a woman who, by all accounts, shouldn't have lived longer than a few days.

Leard was born premature in 1918, weighing only a pound and a half. She was so tiny, her mother's wedding ring went right up past her elbow.

"I was too stubborn to die," she said.

Shoebox baby

Leard said her mother brought her home and kept her in a shoebox near the oven, a make-shift incubator to keep her warm — it was 1918 after all.

Her eldest daughter Sharon Rose says her mother's story is a miracle.

"To think how things are today, and how little they had to work with back in 1918, it's amazing she has survived, and did as well as she did," she said.

Rose said Leard's parents fed her brown sugar and water. She said the doctor at the time was shocked when he came by and saw that Leard was still alive.

"I guess it was the tender loving care … maybe the grace of God that kept her alive."

Her second daughter, Margaret Gaudet, said the only evidence of Leard's premature birth is a turned in foot that's made walking difficult her entire life.

"It certainly never kept her from doing anything, working on our farm, walking from Breadalbane on the railroad tracks to Emerald, to an Irish concert," she said.

"It's just amazing my mother could've been born as tiny as she was, and be here today for her 100th birthday."

Leard celebrated her birthday with her three children, some of her seven grandkids and 14 great grandkids, who perhaps wouldn't exist today if not for Leard's creative mother, a shoebox and a stubborn baby.

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