The world’s oldest person, French nun Lucile Randon, has died aged 118. Ms. Randon who assumed the name Sister André when she took holy orders in 1944 – died in her sleep at her nursing home in Toulon, France. Born in 1904 in southern France, she lived through two world wars and dedicated much of her life to Catholicism.
Born when the Tour de France had only been staged once, Sister André also saw 27 French heads of state. A spokesman from her nursing home, David Tavella, shared news of her death with reporters. Sister André was said to have a close relationship with her brothers. She once told reporters one of her fondest memories was their safe return from fighting at the end of World War One. “It was rare,” she recalled. “In families there were usually two dead rather than two alive”.
Despite being blind and reliant on a wheelchair, Sister André cared for other elderly people – some of whom were much younger than herself. In an interview last April, Sister André said: “People say that work kills, for me work kept me alive, I kept working until I was 108.”
During the same interview, she said she would be better off in heaven, but continued to enjoy earthly pleasures like eating chocolate and drinking a glass of wine every day. She had been Europe’s eldest for some time, but she entered the Guinness Book of Records last April as the world’s oldest person following the death of Kane Tanaka, a Japanese woman who lived until she was 119-years-old.
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