World's Oldest Person, French Nun Lucile Randon Dies At 118

The world's oldest person, French nun Lucile Randon, known as Sister Andre passed away aged 118. According to her spokesperson, Randon died in her sleep at her nursing home in Toulon, France.

Randon was born in southern France on February 11, 1904, a decade before the first world war.

Randon was confirmed as both the oldest person living (female) and overall oldest person living in April 2022 after Kane Tanaka in Japan passed away at the age of 119.

When asked about her secret to living a long life, Randon replied, "I've no idea what the secret is. Only God can answer that question. I've had plenty of unhappiness in life and during the 1914-1918 war when I was a child, I suffered like everyone else."

David Tavella, her spokesperson for the Sainte-Catherine-Laboure nursing home said, "There is great sadness but... it was her desire to join her beloved brother."

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Who Was Lucile Randon?

• Lucile Randon was the world's oldest living person according to the Gerontology Research Group's (GRG) World Supercentenarian Rankings List.
• She had become a Catholic and was baptised when she was 26 years old.
• Randon worked as a governor and tutor before entering a convent in 1944 when she was 40 years old.
• She was assigned to a hospital in Vichy, France and she worked there for 31 years before moving to Toulon.
• Randon had been in nursing homes since 1979 and had been in the Toulon home since 2009.
• In 2021, Lucile Randon survived COVID-19 after the virus swept through the nursing home where she lived and resulted in the death of 10 other residents. She told Var-Matin newspaper, "I didn't even realise I had it".
• Randon shook off the virus after three weeks and become the oldest COVID-19 survivor before her 117th birthday.
• Tavella said, "She showed no fear of the illness, in fact, she was more worried about the other residents."
• The nun told the local media she wasn't scared to have COVID-19 and said, "I wasn't scared because I wasn't scared to die... I would wish to be somewhere else - join my big brother and my grandfather and my grandmother."