A grandad left his family with "beautiful" final goodbye after he died.
Peter Swift, from West Derby, died on May 13 after suffering from a stroke a few weeks before. The 89-year-old was well known on Mab Lane for his creative animal hedges in his garden.
One in particular was shaped like a Scottish Terrier, which was known as the "Mab Lane dog". Peter's granddaughter Sarah Madden said people would come to visit from "near and far" to see it.
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The day before Peter's funeral, his family noticed the dog had "blossomed beautiful, white flowers". They believe this was the dad-of-three's "final farewell".
Sarah told the ECHO : "As grandad had been in hospital for a few weeks the hedge had unfortunately been left for a little longer than usual. After he passed the family where all around at the house doing different thing to help tidy up.
"The day before we said goodbye to him we all noticed that the dog has blossomed beautiful white flowers. Marty his eldest son gave the hedge a little trim to try and tidy it up as that’s what grandad would have wanted.
"We all thought it was so beautiful for his final farewell." Peter was a former driving instructor for the buses in Merseyside. Sarah described her grandad as "artistic" and came to trim his hedges in creative ways when they became "too much to handle."
She said: "The hedges became too much for him to handle so his artistic brain kicked in which led him to do something different with the hedges. It’s taken a good few years to get them to where they are now but people from near and far now recognise it as the Mab Lane dog.
"It was like a Scotty dog with head, ears, tail and mouth. In 2019 when Liverpool echo tweeted about it it was Christmas time. He has put sticks and tinsel on to make it look like a reindeer. There is a bus stop out said grandad's so everyone who passed on bus used to comment and always used to make people smile."
She added: "Everyone who met him always commented on what a true gentleman he was. He had a great personality and sense of humour. Always up dancing at parties. He used to do the 'Swifty shuffle'. Nobody can do it like grandad although they like to try." .
Peter leaves behinds his thee sons, Marty, Peter and Jon, their partners, his loving grandchildren and great grandchildren. Sarah said: "We all love him and miss him so much already."
