bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

sponsorType

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

quizIds

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

paywallTypes

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Agence France-Presse

The world’s oldest known person, French nun Lucile Randon, has died aged 118, a spokesman said on Tuesday.
Randon, known as Sister Andre, was born in southern France on February 11, 1904, when World War I was still a decade away.
She died in her sleep at her nursing home in Toulon, spokesman David Tavella said.
“There is great sadness but … it was her desire to join her beloved brother. For her, it’s a liberation,” said Tavella, of the Sainte-Catherine-Laboure nursing home.


The sister was long feted as the oldest European, before the death of Japan’s Kane Tanaka aged 119 last year left her the longest-lived person on Earth. Guinness World Records officially acknowledged her status in April 2022.
Randon was born in the year New York opened its first subway and when the Tour de France had only been staged once.
She grew up in a Protestant family as the only girl among three brothers, living in the southern town of Ales. One of her fondest memories was the return of two of her brothers at the end of World War I, she said in an interview on her 116th birthday.
“It was rare, in families, there were usually two dead rather than two alive. They both came back,” she said.
Ukraine: World’s oldest tennis player staying in war zone
She worked as a governess in Paris – a period she once called the happiest time of her life – for the children of wealthy families.
She converted to Catholicism and was baptised at the age of 26. Driven by a desire to “go further”, she joined the Daughters of Charity order of nuns at the relatively late age of 41. Sister Andre was then assigned to a hospital in Vichy, where she worked for 31 years.
In later life she moved to Toulon along the Mediterranean coast.
Her days in the nursing home were punctuated by prayer, mealtimes and visits from residents and hospice workers. She also received a steady flow of letters, almost all of which she responded to.


In 2021 she survived catching Covid-19, which infected 81 residents of her nursing home.
Randon told reporters last year that her work and caring for others had kept her spry.
“People say that work kills, for me work kept me alive, I kept working until I was 108,” she told reporters in April last year in the tea room of the home.
Although she was blind and relied on a wheelchair, she used to care for other elderly people much younger than herself.
“People should help each other and love each other instead of hating. If we shared all that, things would be a lot better,” she said at the same meeting with journalists.
World’s second-oldest person survives Covid-19
But the Catholic nun had rejected requests for locks of hair or DNA samples, saying that “only the good Lord knows” the secret of her longevity.
It is likely that France’s new oldest person is now 112-year-old Marie-Rose Tessier, a woman from Vendee, longevity expert Laurent Toussaint said.
But Toussaint warned that it was always possible an even older person had not yet made themselves known.
Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 in Arles, southern France, at the age of 122 holds the record for the oldest confirmed age reached by any human.


Donald Trump’s tariff madness targets not only allies but animals

Trump losing patience with Putin, US’ Marco Rubio tells Nato

French creche worker jailed for 25 years over drain-cleaner killing of baby

France’s Macron urges firms to halt US investments in ‘collective solidarity’

France

World’s oldest known person, French nun Lucile Randon, dies aged 118

Sister Andre, Lucile Randon in the registry of birth, prays on the eve of her 117th birthday in Toulon, France in February 2021. Photo: AFP

World’s second-oldest person, 117-year-old nun, survives Covid-19

Sister Andre: ‘I wasn’t scared to die’. Photo: AP

Scientists to test anti-ageing pill on dogs in largest-ever study of canine longevity

University of Washington School of Medicine researcher Daniel Promislow, the principal investigator of the Dog ageing Project grant, rubs the head of his elderly dog Frisbee at their home in Seattle on Monday. Photo: AP

Don Smith reacts as Cap'n Crunch the Great Dane yawns during the Meet the Breeds event ahead of the 143rd Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in New York, U.S., February 9, 2019. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

This undated photo provided by Leslie Lambert in November 2019 shows her 11-year-old rescue dog, Oscar. Lambert of Parkville, Md., enrolled him in an early phase of the Dog Aging Project. "I would selfishly like to have him around forever," said the 33-year-old veterinarian. "Unfortunately, he ages much, much faster than I do." (Leslie Lambert via AP)

Oldest US veteran dies aged 112, survived near-death experiences in WWII

World War II veteran Lawrence Brooks has died aged 112. Photo: AP Photo

World War II veteran Lawrence Brooks died at the age of 112. Photo: AP

News

World

Europe

Also known as Sister Andre, she was born in southern France in 1904, more than a decade before World War I, and died in her sleep at her nursing home in Toulon
Randon was long feted as the oldest European, before the death of Japan’s Kane Tanaka, 119, last year left her the longest-lived person on Earth


Also known as Sister Andre, she was born in southern France in 1904, more than a decade before World War I, and died in her sleep at her nursing home in Toulon.


Obituaries