Who is Lucile Randon, world’s oldest person who passed away at the age of 118

Lucile Randon known as Sister Andre a French nun who was believed to be the world’s oldest person passed away a few weeks before her 119th birthday, a representative for her nursing facility in southern France stated on Wednesday. 

She passed away at the Sainte-Catherine-Laboure nursing home in the town of Toulon at 2:00 a.m. on Tuesday, according to spokesman David Tavella.

A spokesperson from her nursing home in southern France told the news. Lucile Randon was born on February 11, 1904, a decade before World War I in the southern French town of Ales. She was also among the oldest COVID-19 survivors in history.

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The announcement of her loss was made on Twitter by the city's mayor, Hubert Falco, who wrote: “it is with immense sadness and emotion that I learnt tonight of the passing of the world’s oldest person #SisterAndré.”

Randon was born in the year New York opened its first subway and when the Tour de France had only been staged once. She became a Catholic and was baptised at the age of 26. She joined the Daughters of Charity order of nuns at the surprisingly late age of 41, motivated by a desire to "go further." 

After that, Sister Andre was transferred to a hospital in Vichy, where she worked for 31 years. Sister André was the oldest living nun and had devoted the majority of her life to religious service.

She cared for the children of affluent families while working as a governess in Paris, a time she once referred to as the happiest of her life.

When questioned about her unusual lifespan through two world wars in April of last year, she told French journalists that  "working … makes you live. I worked until I was 108."

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She was rumoured to drink wine and eat chocolate every day.

When Randon turned 118, she received a handwritten birthday card from Emmanuel Macron the French President. 

After Japan's Kane Tanaka passed away at the age of 119 last year, the Gerontology Research Group, which verifies information about people assumed to be 110 or older, designated her as the oldest known person in the world. Guinness World Records officially recognised her status in April 2022.