World’s oldest person, a French nun, dies at 118

The world’s oldest person, French nun Sister André, died at 118.

CNN reported the words of the nun’s spokesperson, David Tavella, that she died on Tuesday at 2 AM local time.

“There is great sadness, but she wanted it to happen. It was her desire to join her beloved brother. For her, it is freedom,” Tavella said.

She was the world's oldest living person according to the Gerontology Research Group's World Supercentenarian Rankings List.

Sister André Lucile Randon was born in Alès, the southern part of France, on February 11, 1904 (ten years before World War I).

Her parents are Paul Randon and Alphonsine Delphine Yéta Soutoul.

At the age of 19, she converted to Catholicism from Protestantism. She joined the Congregation of Daughters of Charity, also known as Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent De Paul. She took the name of Sister André, which is the name of her dead brother.

She served the orphans and the elders at the hospital in Vichy (located in the region of Central France) for 28 years. She shifted to serve at another hospital at La Baume-d’Hostun (located in southeastern France).

The nun retired at the age of 75 in 1979. She stayed 30 years at the French residential care for senior citizens in Savoie (located in the French Alps). And then, she shifted to the home for the aged in Toulon along the Mediterranean coast on October 25, 2009.

She lost her eyesight in 2010 and could not see. She spent her days in a wheelchair. She starts her day with breakfast, followed by morning Mass. 

She always cared for other hospice residents, although she could not see anymore.

She survived two global health crises - Spanish flu in 1918 and, in 2021, she got infected with Covid-19 and recovered after three weeks. According to the Guinness World Records statement, she was verified as the oldest survivor of Covid-19 at the age of 117 in 2021. 

In her lifetime, Pope Francis is the tenth pope. 

An American-born Spanish, María Branyas Morera, is now the world’s oldest living person at 115 years old since the death of the French nun, Sister André.