Worlds oldest person French nun Sister Andre dies at 118.jpgw1440

World’s oldest person, French nun Sister André, dies at 118

Comment on this story

comment

As the world’s oldest living person, French nun Lucile Randon survived two world wars — and multiple pandemics. She died at 118.

Also known as Sister André – and the oldest living nun and oldest survivor of Covid-19 according to Guinness World Records – she died on Tuesday, just weeks before her 119th birthday, a spokeswoman for the care home where she spent her final years said the Associated Press.

“It’s a great sadness but … it was her desire to join her beloved brother,” spokesman David Tavella said, according to AFP. “It’s a liberation for them.”

Sister André was born on February 11, 1904 and lived through both the 1918-19 flu and the coronavirus pandemic.

She told French media in 2021 that her Covid-19 symptoms were so mild she didn’t even know she was infected.

As a young woman Sister André worked as a teacher and governess before becoming a Catholic nun in 1944, Guinness said after her death. She also worked in a hospital with orphans and the elderly in France for almost three decades.

In her later years, she lost her sight but continued to enjoy chocolate and a daily glass of wine.

She was officially recognized as the oldest living person in April last year after the death of 119-year-old Japanese woman Kane Tanaka.

“They say work kills, but it’s work that brings me to life,” she said after receiving the title, according to French media. “I worked until I was 108.”

Her successor for the title of world’s oldest person has not been officially announced, but according to the Gerontology Research Group’s World Supercentenarian Rankings List, the new record-holder appears to be María Branyas Morera, a 115-year-old Spanish woman who was born in the United States Conditions.

She is one of only two living people known to have celebrated their 115th birthday: the other, Fusa Tatsumi, lives in Osaka, Japan and is 52 days her junior.

The record for the oldest person of all time was held by Jeanne Louise Calment of France, who died in 1997 at the age of 122 years and 164 days.