FRENCH NUN SISTER ANDRE IS NOW THE WORLD’S OLDEST WOMAN AFTER DEATH OF JANE TANAKA ; KNOW AMAZING FACTS ABOUT SISTER ANDRE
Sister Andre, Lucille Randon in the registry of birth, the eldest French citizen, is pictured on the eve of her 117th birthday in the EHPAD (Housing Establishment for Dependant Elderly People) on February 10, 2021 in Toulon, southern France, where she has been living since 2009. Sister Andre was born February 11, 1904. Sister Andre is the oldest european person. NICOLAS TUCAT / AFP
(The Quiver) : French nun Sister Andre, at 118, is now the oldest known person in the world after the death of the Japanese oldest woman Jane Tanaka.
Tanaka died of old age at a hospital in Fukuoka, her hometown in southern Japan where she spent all her life. Japan’s Kane Tanaka was the world’s oldest woman as mentioned by the International Database on Longevity (IDL) and Guinness World Records, died at age 119 on Monday.
“Sister Andre indeed becomes the oldest, and by far, since the next oldest is a Polish woman who is 115,” said Laurent Toussaint, a computer scientist and amateur tracker for the IDL as well as the French institute of demographic studies (INED).
Some interesting facts about Sister Andre
Lucile Randon, better known as Sister Andre, was born in southern France on February 11, 1904, even before World War I, which was still a decade away.
She is the third-oldest French person and the third-oldest European person ever recorded.
More recently, Sister André received yet another startling record for the oldest COVID-19 survivor. Now 118, she is now partially deaf and uses a wheelchair, but keeps her mind active. She has lived in her retirement home for the last 12 years.
Sister André has lived a full life and in her younger years worked as a teacher, a governess and looked after children during World War II.
After the war, she spent 28 years working with orphans and elderly people at a hospital in Vichy, Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region before becoming a Catholic nun.
Sister Andre got a handwritten New Year’s greeting from President Emmanuel Macron this year, among the many letters and boxes of chocolates sent by well-wishers.
In Japan, the new record-holder is a 115-year-old woman Fusa Tatsumi, of Osaka, as mentioned by the Japanese health ministry .
Japan population is rapidly aging and declining, had 86,510 centenarians, 90% of them women, indicating the latest ministry figures.
