French nun Sister Andre, recognized last April by the Guinness World Records as the oldest living person, died Tuesday, less than a month before turning 119.
Sister Andre, who was already blind and wheelchair dependent, died in her sleep in her nursing home in Toulon, the French news agency TBEN quoted her spokesman as saying.
Born Lucile Randon on February 11, 1904 to a Protestant family in the South of France, she converted to Catholicism at the age of 26 and joined the order of nuns of the Daughters of Charity at the age of 41.
How did she become the world’s oldest living person?
Sister Andre was born the same year the New York subway was launched, and an entire decade before World War I began.
In early 2021, Sister Andre tested positive for asymptomatic COVID-19, during an outbreak at her nursing home.
The Guinness World Records listed her as the oldest living person in April last year, following the death of Japan’s Kane Tanaka at age 119. Before that, she bore the title of the oldest living European.
Sister Andre told reporters last year that working and caring for others was the secret behind her long life.
“People say work kills, for me work kept me alive, I kept working until I was 108,” TBEN quoted her as saying.
However, the nun declined requests to analyze her TBEN samples, saying the secret to her longevity was something “only the good lord knows.”
rmt/wd (TBEN, Reuters)
