PARIS: Sister André, a French nun and the world’s oldest identified individual, who lived by means of two world wars and the 1918 influenza pandemic and survived Covid-19, died Tuesday in France. She was 118.
A spokesperson for the nursing dwelling within the southern metropolis of Toulon, the place Sister André was residing, confirmed the demise in an interview with French information media.
“Humanity loses its oldest individual tonight,” Hubert Falco, town’s mayor, wrote on Twitter.
Sister André made headlines in recent times for being the world’s oldest identified survivor of Covid, based on Guinness World Data. She beat the illness with barely any issues simply as she was about to show 117.
“She saved telling me, ‘I’m not afraid of Covid as a result of I’m not afraid of dying,’” David Tavella, a spokesperson for the nursing dwelling, Ste. Catherine Labouré, stated in an interview with The New York Occasions in 2021.
On Tuesday, Tavella advised Agence France-Presse that it was Sister André’s “want to hitch her beloved brother,” with whom she was shut, in demise.
“For her, it’s freedom,” he stated.
Born Lucile Randon on Feb. 11, 1904, the yr New York opened its first subway station, Sister André grew up in a Protestant household of six within the southern city of Alès. She labored as a governess in Paris and later transformed to Catholicism and was baptized on the age of 26. She joined a charitable order about twenty years later and took on her ecclesiastical title.
Sister André was assigned to a hospital in Vichy, the place she cared for orphans and others for 3 a long time.
She was identified for her generosity, usually aiding older individuals youthful than herself.
“Sister André was above all a profoundly good and endearing lady, devoted to others,” Falco stated.
Apart from, Sister André advised reporters final yr, “Work saved me alive.”
She lived by means of the administrations of 18 French presidents and 10 popes. Her relations stated she at all times had vivid recollections of worldwide occasions, together with the 2 world wars. She stated in interviews that she noticed many French troopers who fought within the 1954-62 Algerian warfare for independence returning traumatized to the hospital the place she labored.
“Since I got here into this world, I’ve solely seen wars and fights,” Sister André stated in an interview as she celebrated her 118th birthday.
Sister André additionally survived the influenza epidemic of 1918-19, which took the lives of some 50 million individuals worldwide.
Her surviving Covid-19 in early 2021 was an uplifting story in the course of the coronavirus pandemic, when nursing houses had been significantly in danger. Practically the entire 88 residents of her facility turned contaminated, and several other died.
“It’s troublesome to fathom that somebody born earlier than the patenting of plastic, zips and even bras was alive properly into the twenty first century, and sturdy sufficient to beat Covid-19,” Craig Glenday, the editor-in-chief of Guinness World Data, stated in a press release.
Sister André turned the world’s oldest identified individual after the demise of Japan’s Kane Tanaka, who died final yr at 119, based on Guinness World Data. With Sister André’s demise, the oldest identified individual, based on the Gerontology Analysis Group, which validates these considered 110 or older, is Maria Branyas Morera. She was born in america, lives in Spain and is 115.
Glenday stated Sister André was “the fourth-oldest individual ever authenticated.”
The French president’s workplace stated in a press release that “she had turn out to be for the French a logo of continuity and resistance, a reminiscence of the century.”
Blind and in a wheelchair throughout her final years, Sister André at occasions felt lonely and dependent, she advised French information retailers.
She was identified to be a gourmand. For her 117th birthday, she ate foie gras, roasted capon, cheese and a dessert much like baked Alaska. And, she stated, she loved a little bit of wine and chocolate day by day.
“Maybe her secret of longevity,” Tavella stated.
A spokesperson for the nursing dwelling within the southern metropolis of Toulon, the place Sister André was residing, confirmed the demise in an interview with French information media.
“Humanity loses its oldest individual tonight,” Hubert Falco, town’s mayor, wrote on Twitter.
Sister André made headlines in recent times for being the world’s oldest identified survivor of Covid, based on Guinness World Data. She beat the illness with barely any issues simply as she was about to show 117.
“She saved telling me, ‘I’m not afraid of Covid as a result of I’m not afraid of dying,’” David Tavella, a spokesperson for the nursing dwelling, Ste. Catherine Labouré, stated in an interview with The New York Occasions in 2021.
On Tuesday, Tavella advised Agence France-Presse that it was Sister André’s “want to hitch her beloved brother,” with whom she was shut, in demise.
“For her, it’s freedom,” he stated.
Born Lucile Randon on Feb. 11, 1904, the yr New York opened its first subway station, Sister André grew up in a Protestant household of six within the southern city of Alès. She labored as a governess in Paris and later transformed to Catholicism and was baptized on the age of 26. She joined a charitable order about twenty years later and took on her ecclesiastical title.
Sister André was assigned to a hospital in Vichy, the place she cared for orphans and others for 3 a long time.
She was identified for her generosity, usually aiding older individuals youthful than herself.
“Sister André was above all a profoundly good and endearing lady, devoted to others,” Falco stated.
Apart from, Sister André advised reporters final yr, “Work saved me alive.”
She lived by means of the administrations of 18 French presidents and 10 popes. Her relations stated she at all times had vivid recollections of worldwide occasions, together with the 2 world wars. She stated in interviews that she noticed many French troopers who fought within the 1954-62 Algerian warfare for independence returning traumatized to the hospital the place she labored.
“Since I got here into this world, I’ve solely seen wars and fights,” Sister André stated in an interview as she celebrated her 118th birthday.
Sister André additionally survived the influenza epidemic of 1918-19, which took the lives of some 50 million individuals worldwide.
Her surviving Covid-19 in early 2021 was an uplifting story in the course of the coronavirus pandemic, when nursing houses had been significantly in danger. Practically the entire 88 residents of her facility turned contaminated, and several other died.
“It’s troublesome to fathom that somebody born earlier than the patenting of plastic, zips and even bras was alive properly into the twenty first century, and sturdy sufficient to beat Covid-19,” Craig Glenday, the editor-in-chief of Guinness World Data, stated in a press release.
Sister André turned the world’s oldest identified individual after the demise of Japan’s Kane Tanaka, who died final yr at 119, based on Guinness World Data. With Sister André’s demise, the oldest identified individual, based on the Gerontology Analysis Group, which validates these considered 110 or older, is Maria Branyas Morera. She was born in america, lives in Spain and is 115.
Glenday stated Sister André was “the fourth-oldest individual ever authenticated.”
The French president’s workplace stated in a press release that “she had turn out to be for the French a logo of continuity and resistance, a reminiscence of the century.”
Blind and in a wheelchair throughout her final years, Sister André at occasions felt lonely and dependent, she advised French information retailers.
She was identified to be a gourmand. For her 117th birthday, she ate foie gras, roasted capon, cheese and a dessert much like baked Alaska. And, she stated, she loved a little bit of wine and chocolate day by day.
“Maybe her secret of longevity,” Tavella stated.
