World’s oldest person, French nun Sister Andre, dies aged 118

India Today:

The world’s oldest known person, French nun Lucile Randon, died aged 118 in the city of Toulon, France on Tuesday.

Randon’s spokesman, David Tavella, said she died at 2 am on Tuesday. “There is great sadness, but she wanted it to happen, it was her desire to join her beloved brother. For her, it is freedom,” Tavella said.

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Toulon Mayor Hubert Falco announced the news of her death on Twitter, writing that “it is with immense sadness and emotion that I learnt tonight of the passing of the world’s oldest person #SisterAndré.”

The sister was recognised as the oldest European, before the death of Japan’s Kane Tanaka aged 119 last year left her the longest-lived person on Earth.

Lucile Randon, also known as Sister Andre, was born in 1904 in the French town of Ales. A born survivor, she lived through the Spanish flu pandemic in 1918 and two World Wars.

She converted to Catholicism when she was 19 years old and became a nun eight years later. In her younger years, Sister Andre worked as a teacher and a governess, and spent much of the Second World War looking after children.