The French
sister André
, recognized since April as the oldest person in the world,
died at dawn on Tuesday at the age of 118
in her nursing home in Toulon (in the south of the country), they announced from the establishment.
"He died at 2 in the morning,
while he was sleeping
," the official said when reporting the death of Lucile Randon, known as Sister André, born on February 11, 1904 in the southern French city of Alés.
"It's a great sadness,
but it's what she wanted
, her longing was to reach her beloved brother.
For her it was a liberation
," added David Tavella, communication manager at the Sainte-Catherine-Labouré nursing home.
The title of oldest person in the world is not attributed by any official body, but specialists agreed that the nun was the oldest person whose marital status could be verified.
The Guinness Book of Records
conferred that rank on April 25, 2022, after the death, at the age of 119, of the Japanese Kane Tanaka.
Sister André, in the last stretch of her life blind and in a wheelchair, had not hidden a certain tiredness for some years and confessed that her wish was to "
die soon
".
But
"God doesn't listen to me, he must be deaf
," said the woman in a lengthy interview with
AFP
in February last year.
Born into a non-practicing Protestant family, the nun took the habit late, in the congregation of the Daughters of Charity, and worked until the late 1970s.
But then she continued to take care of other retirees, younger than her.
"It is said that work kills, but
it is work that makes me live
, because I worked until I was 108 years old," the nun said on that occasion.
He survived two World Wars and two pandemics
His life has been incredible: he saw 19 French presidents pass by, two World Wars and two pandemics: the Spanish flu and the coronavirus.
In fact, he had covid, but without symptoms.
“I didn't even realize it,” he recounted.
In addition, he witnessed the invention of radio and television, the creation of antibiotics, and the advent of modern technology.
With information from AFP
DB
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