France's Sister Andre, 118 years old confirm as world's oldest known person

French nun Sister Andre, at 118, is now the oldest known person in the world, as claimed, after the death of a Japanese woman one year her senior. Sister André, who was born on February 11, 1904, as Lucile Randon, is the oldest person alive at 118 years and 73 days old, Guinness World Records said.

Kane Tanaka, the world’s oldest, died on Monday at the age of 119, according to the International Database on Longevity (IDL) and Guinness World Records.

Sister Andre is the oldest, and by far the next oldest is a 115-year-old Polish woman,” said Laurent Toussaint, a computer scientist and amateur tracker for the IDL and the French Institute of Demographic Studies (INED).

After becoming a Catholic nun in 1944, Sister André took her name. She is the third-oldest person in France and the third-oldest person in Europe.

During World War II, Sister André worked as a teacher, governess, and child care provider in her early years.

After the war, she spent 28 years working with orphans and elderly people at a hospital in Vichy, Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region.

Sister André also holds the record for the oldest nun living. She also received the record for the oldest COVID-19 survivor

“She’s happy, she likes very much this attention,” said the home’s communications director David Tavella, adding that a short press conference would be held Tuesday morning.

Making light of her old age, she joked: “I’m thinking of withdrawing from this affair [of life], but ‘they’ don’t want me to,” as if God had forgotten to call for her.

She told French broadcaster BFM that she was not scared of Covid and “wasn’t scared to die.”

“I’m happy to be with you, but I would wish to be somewhere else to join my big brother, and my grandfather and my grandmother,” she said.