Sister Andre is the second-oldest known living person in the world. The world has just seen her celebrating her win over Flu, two world wars and Coronavirus infection. She has survived the first world war and second world war. Earlier this year she beat the life threatening COVID-19 viral infection. Her birth name is Lucile Randon.
When the media got in touch with Mr. David Tavella, the communications manager for the nun’s care home in Toulon, a city in the southern part of France. He also said, “She is in great shape. I went to see her this morning. She is really happy. She wanted me to tell her the schedule for the day again.”
“She was very proud when I told her. She said, ‘A Mass for me?'”
“All of it washed down with red wine, because she drinks red wine. It’s one of her secrets of longevity. And a bit of Champagne with dessert, because 117 years have to be toasted,” Tavella said.
While fixing candles on the cake, “we stopped trying a long time ago,” he added. “Because even if we made big cakes, I’m not sure that she would have enough breath to blow them all out. You would need a fire extinguisher.”
“When the whole world suddenly started talking about this story, I understood that Sister André was a bit like an Olympic flame on a ’round the world tour that people want to grab hold of, because we all need a bit of hope at the moment,” Tavella said.
Mr. Tavella was also celebrating his 43rd birthday on Thursday.
“We often joke that she and I were born on the same day,” he said. “I never tell myself that she is 117 because she is so easy to talk to, regardless of age. It is only when she talks about World War I as though she lived through it that I realize, ‘Yes, she did live through it!'”
The menu for her birthday was quite a feast including foie gras, capon with fragrant mushrooms and wrapping up with baked Alaska. The menu consisted of nun’s favorite dessert.
There is a dedicated organisation that validates the age of the oldest people in the world. The Gerontology Research Group is the one which validates details of people thought to be 110 or older, and listed sister Andre as the second-oldest known living person in the world, behind only an 118-year-old woman in Japan, Kane Tanaka.
