Lucile Randon facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Lucile Randon
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Randon as a young woman in the 1920s
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| Born |
Lucile Randon
11 February 1904 Alès, France
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| Died | 17 January 2023 (aged 118 years, 340 days) Toulon, France
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| Other names | Sister André |
| Occupation | Catholic nun |
| Known for | Oldest known living person (19 April 2022 – 17 January 2023) |
Lucile Randon DC (born February 11, 1904 – died January 17, 2023), also known as Sister André (French: Sœur André), was a French woman who lived a very long life. She was a supercentenarian, which means someone who lives to be 110 years old or more.
Sister André lived to be 118 years and 340 days old. For a time, she was the oldest person in the world whose age was officially checked. This happened after Kane Tanaka passed away on April 19, 2022. Sister André was also the oldest person known to have survived COVID-19. She tested positive for the virus just before her 117th birthday.
Lucile Randon became a Catholic nun when she was an adult. Before that, she worked as a governess, a teacher, and a missionary. She stopped working full-time when she was 75. From 2009 until her death in 2023, she lived in a nursing home in Toulon, France.
Her Early Life and Work
Lucile Randon was born on February 11, 1904, in Alès, France. Her parents were Paul Randon and Alphonsine Delphine Yéta Soutoul. She had three older brothers and a twin sister named Lydie. Sadly, Lydie died when she was only one year old.
When Lucile was 12 years old in 1916, she started working as a governess in Marseille. A governess is someone who teaches and cares for children in their home. In 1922, she got a bigger job. She became both a governess and a teacher for an important family in Versailles. She worked there until 1936.
Lucile grew up in a Protestant family. Her grandfather was even a pastor. But in 1923, when she was 19, she decided to become a Catholic.
In 1944, she joined a Catholic group called the Daughters of Charity. She took the name Sister André to honor her older brother. After World War II ended, Sister André went on a mission to a hospital in Vichy. There, she helped orphans and older people. She worked there for 18 years.
In 1963, she moved to another hospital in La Baume-d'Hostun, Drôme, to work night shifts. Sister André stopped working full-time in 1979. She then moved to a retirement home in Savoie. Even there, she continued to care for older people until she was 100 years old! On October 25, 2009, when she was 105, she moved to a new retirement home in Toulon.
Her Health and Long Life
Later in her life, Sister André became blind and used a wheelchair. In January 2021, she tested positive for COVID-19 during an outbreak at her nursing home. But she didn't show any symptoms and tested negative just days before her 117th birthday. This made her the oldest known person to survive the COVID-19 pandemic.
After another very old French woman, Honorine Rondello, passed away in 2017, Sister André became the oldest living person in France. When she turned 115 in 2019, Pope Francis sent her a special letter and a blessed rosary. In 2021, she said she was happy where she lived. But she also said she wished to join her grandparents and brother André in heaven.
On her 118th birthday in February 2022, Sister André received a birthday note from the French president, Emmanuel Macron. On April 19, 2022, she became the world's oldest officially checked living person. She said it was a "sad honor" and felt she would be "better off in heaven." At that time, people reported that she still enjoyed eating chocolate and drinking a glass of wine every day.
Sister André passed away peacefully in her sleep at her nursing home in Toulon on January 17, 2023. She was 118 years and 340 days old. When she died, she was the fourth-oldest person ever whose age had been officially confirmed. After her death, María Branyas Morera became the world's oldest living person.
See also
- List of French supercentenarians
- List of European supercentenarians
- List of the verified oldest people
- Oldest people
