Sister André, the World’s Oldest Person, Dead at 118 in France: ‘Great Sadness’
Florian Escoffier/Abaca/Sipa USA(Sipa via AP Sister André
The world’s oldest person, French nun Sister André, has died. She was 118.
Sister André, born Lucile Randon on Feb. 11, 1904, died at her retirement home in France, according to Reuters.
“There is great sadness, but … it was her desire to join her beloved brother,” David Tavella, spokesman for the Sainte-Catherine-Laboure nursing home in Toulon, told Australia’s ABC News. It’s a liberation for her.
Tavella said Sister André died in her sleep.
Sister André assumed the title of the world’s oldest person in April 2022, after the death of Japan resident Kane Tanaka at age 119.
The time was Guinness World Records named Sister André the oldest living nun, the second-oldest French person, and the second-oldest European person on record.
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During her life, Sister André served as a teacher, governess, and caretaker to children during World War II. She spent close to three decades helping orphans and elderly people after the war.
She worked at Vichy, an Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes-area hospital, for nearly three decades before becoming a Catholic nun, per Guinness World Records.
In addition to living through WWII, Sister André survived the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918 and, most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic — despite testing positive for the virus on Jan. 16, 2021.
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Sister André was the oldest living survivor of COVID-19, Guinness World Records said.
“They get me up at 7 a.m., they give me my breakfast, then they put me at my desk where I stay busy with little things,” Sister André told Guinness World Records of a normal day in her retirement home.
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Sister André spent some of her final days eating chocolates and sweets and drinking wine.
Guinness World Records staffer said that “her glass of wine sustains her” and was perhaps her secret to longevity. “I don’t know — I don’t encourage people to drink a glass of wine every day!”