Oldest person in the world, French nun Lucile Randon, dies at 118

On February 11th he would have turned 119, the Guinness Book of Records age where Lucile RandonFrench nun had already been since April 2022. She was there oldest person in the world. She passed away at the age of 118 years and 340 days. The nun of Alès died in her sleep in the rest home in Toulon where she lived.

She was known as Sister André and was born in the south of France on February 11, 1904, before the First World War. In that year the pope was Pius X, the premiere of Madama Butterfly was staged at La Scala, the subway was inaugurated in New York. She lived through the two world wars, the Spanish epidemic and that of Covid who has contracted and is, for this reason, also the oldest person to be healed.

In April 2022 after the death of Kane Tanaka, a Japanese woman who had reached the age of 119 was the oldest person in the world. The news of her death was confirmed by the mayor of the city where she lived, Hubert Falco: «It is with immense sadness and enormous emotion that I have just learned of Sister André’s death. She was the doyen of humanity and thanks to her considerable age she had won the hearts of all French people. But beyond the symbol she represented for having crossed the century and lived through two world wars, Sister André was above all a profoundly good and affectionate woman».

His parents, Paul and Alphonsine, had been born in 1866 and 1869 respectively. He had a twin sister who died a year after birth. At the age of 19 he had chosen the religious life and, at the age of twenty, had begun the novitiate. For 28 years she had been in a hospital and then in an old people’s home. She belonged to the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul. In 2009, at the age of 105, she went to live in a rest home, the Sainte-Catherine Labouré in Toulon. Here she celebrated her favorite dish, birthdays, with an omelette. «My daily joy is to still be able to pray», she repeated, «they say that work kills, but work has given me life. I worked until I was 108.” With the death of her, the 115 year old Maria Branyas Morerawho lives in Spain, becomes the oldest person in the world.

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