Sister André, considered the oldest person in the world, dies at 118

“There is great sadness but… it was her wish to join her beloved brother. For her it is a liberation,” a spokesman for the asylum told the AFP agency.

Born in the south of France on February 11, 1904for many years ranked second in the Guinness Book of Life as the world’s longest-lived person, second only to 119-year-old Japanese Kane Tanaka, who died last year.

He then became the oldest person on record.

The Guinness Book officially recognized it in April 2022.

In 2021 he survived the covid-19 pandemicafter 81 residents of his nursing home were infected.

Randon was born in the year New York opened its first subway line and a decade before the start of World War I.

She grew up in a Protestant family as the only girl among three siblings in the southern town of Alès.

One of his best memories was the return of two of his brothers at the end of World War I, he told the AFP agency in an interview on his 116th birthday.

“It was rare in families, which usually had two dead instead of two alive. They both came back,” he said.

She worked as a governess in Paris for the sons of wealthy families, a period he once called “the happiest time of his life.”

She converted to Catholicism and was baptized at the age of 26.

Driven by the desire to “go further”, she joined the order of nuns of the Daughters of Charity at the relatively advanced age of 41 years.

Sister André was then assigned to a hospital in Vichy, where she worked for 31 years.

Then he moved to Toulon, on the Mediterranean coast. Her days at the nursing home were marked by prayer, meals, and visits from residents and hospice workers.

He also received a constant stream of letters, replying to almost all of them.

At a press conference last year, she said her job and caring for others had sustained her for so long.

“People say that work kills, but work kept me alive. I kept working until I was 108 years old,” she reflected.

Although she lost her sight and was wheelchair dependent, she used to take care of other people much younger than her.

“People should help each other and love each other instead of hating each other. If we shared all that, things would go much better,” he said.

Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 in Arles in southern France at the age of 122, holds the record for the oldest confirmed age of any human being.

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