French nun turns 117 defeating Covid-19
Europe's oldest person, French nun Sister Andre, turned 117 yesterday after surviving Covid-19 last month and living through two world wars, with a special birthday feast including her favourite dessert -- baked Alaska.
Born Lucile Randon on February 11, 1904, Sister Andre said she didn't realise she had caught the coronavirus, which infected 81 residents of her retirement home in the southeast city of Toulon, killing 10 of them.
"I'm told that I got it," the nun told AFP on Wednesday at the home, where she sat basking in the winter sun, her eyes closed and hands clasped in prayer.
"I was very tired, it's true, but I didn't realise it," she added in a steady, strong voice that belies her years.
Sister Andre, who has been inundated with calls from reporters around the world, said she was not planning to do anything special for her 117th birthday.
But the home has other ideas, with a celebration to include a video call with her family.
She says her favourite food is lobster and she enjoys "a small glass of wine every day".
Born in the southern town of Ales in a Protestant family, she grew up as the only girl among three brothers. One of her fondest memories was the return of two of her brothers at the end of World War I.
"It was rare, in families, there were usually two dead rather than two alive. They both came back," she told AFP last year, on her 116th birthday.
As a young woman she worked as a governess to children of wealthy families in Paris.
She is the second-oldest living person in the world, according to the Gerontology Research Group, after Japanese woman Kane Tanaka, who is 118.
Asked what she would say to young people, Sister Andre said, hands clasped in prayer, "Be brave and show compassion."
Comments