New Delhi: On Monday, 118 years and 73 days old Sister André was confirmed to be the world’s oldest person by the Guinness World Records. The French nun is now officially the oldest person in the world. Sister André has also shared her secret for long life – “A glass of wine every day and chocolate”.
Sister André was titled the world’s oldest person after the death of Japanese woman Kane Tanaka, while she was already the oldest person in Europe when she had turned 117 in 2021. Kane Tanaka, who happens to be the oldest verified Japanese person and the second oldest verified person ever died on April 19 this month.
According to the Guinness World Records, André was born on February 11, 1904, as Lucille Randon. She served as a governess in her early days and became a nun in 1944 during the second world war.
Sister André has lived through the first world war, the Spanish Flu in 1918, and also conquered the deadly coronavirus in 2021, becoming the world’s oldest survivor of Covid-19. Last year, she was quoted saying by a leading news daily that she “didn’t even realize I had it”.
She has been living in a nursing home in Toulon city of France for past 12 years, and has mostly spent the heights of the Covid pandemic last year in her room. Her secret to a long and healthy life is “A glass of wine every day and chocolate”.
For the unversed, a woman named Jeanne Louise Calment, who holds the record for the oldest person ever was also a French and lived to be 122 years and 164 days old. Interestingly, she was also fond of wine and chocolates.
One of Sister André’s confidants told news agency AFP that she wishes to break Calment’s record and that she thinks that “the record is within reach, if she’s going to stay on Earth, she might as well make it”.
