All you need to know about world’s new oldest living person Sister André
Lucile Randon, commonly known as Sister André, is a French supercentenarian who is the world’s oldest verified surviving person at the age of 118 years, 74 days.
Following the death of Japan’s Kane Tanaka on April 19, 2022, she became the world’s oldest verified person.
She is also the world’s oldest known survivor of the COVID-19 pandemic, having tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and recovered just days before her 117th birthday.
Randon is a resident of a Toulon nursing home. She became a Roman Catholic nun when she was a young adult and worked as a nanny, teacher, and missionary before retiring at the age of 75.
Randon was born in Alès, France, on February 11, 1904 to Paul Randon and Alphonsine Delphine Yéta Soutoul. Her siblings comprised two elder brothers and a one-year-old twin sister named Lydie.
Her grandfather was a minister, and she grew raised in a Protestant family. In 1916, when she was twelve years old, she became a governess to three children in Marseille.
When she was employed as both a nanny and a teacher by a renowned family at Versailles in 1922, her position was elevated.
During her time there, she developed close to one of her elder brothers, who had been elected as a local judge (juge de paix) in nearby Houdan.
Randon traveled on a mission to a hospital in Vichy after WWII ended, where she treated orphans and the elderly.
Her mission lasted 28 years until she was assigned to night duty at a different hospital at La Baume-d’Hostun, Drôme, in 1973.
At the age of 75, she retired and joined the EHPAD in the Marches de Savoie, where she stayed for the next 30 years. On October 25, 2009, she relocated to a retirement home in Toulon.
In the 2010s, she turned blind. Pope Francis gave her a personal letter and a blessed rosary when she turned 115.
