French Nun Who Enjoys Chocolate and Wine Becomes Oldest Person Alive at 118
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CHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP via Getty Images
Meet the world's oldest living person!
On Monday, Guinness World Records confirmed that a French nun named Sister André is the world's oldest person at 118 years and 73 days old.
Sister André earned the title after Japan resident Kane Tanaka, who was previously recognized as the world's oldest living person by the GWR, died on April 19 at 119.
Sister André is the oldest living nun, third-oldest French person and third-oldest European person on record to date, said the GWR.
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Born in France on February 11, 1904 as Lucile Randon, Sister André has left her mark on the world as a teacher, governess and caretaker to children amid World War II. After the war, she spent nearly three decades working with elderly people and orphans.
She worked at Vichy, an Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes area hospital, for 28-years before transitioning into a Catholic nun.
In addition to WWII, she survived the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918 and most recently the coronavirus pandemic — despite testing positive for COVID-19 on Jan. 16, 2021. She is also the oldest living survivor of COVID-19, said the GWR.
She has lived in a retirement home for 12 years and is confined to a wheelchair and partially deaf.
"They get me up at 7 a.m., they give me my breakfast, then they put me at my desk where I stay busy with little things," she said per the GWR on a typical day in the retirement home.
Sister André enjoys chocolate and sweets occasionally and drinks a glass of wine everyday.
"Her glass of wine maintains her and which is perhaps her longevity secret. I don't know — I don't encourage people to drink a glass of wine everyday!" said a staff member from the record breaker's home facility per the GWR.
