Who is Now The Oldest Person Alive In The World
The oldest verified living person alive is Lucile Randon (born 1904). She is a French Nun who resides in a nursing home in Toulon, France.
Lucile Randon (born 11 February 1904), also known as Sister André, is a French supercentenarian and nun who is the world’s oldest verified living person at the age of 118 years, 73 days. In addition to her longevity, she is the oldest known COVID-19 pandemic survivor, having tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 just days before her 117th birthday.
Randon was a young adult when she converted to Catholicism and worked as a governess, teacher, and missionary before retiring at the age of 75. She is currently residing in Toulon, France, in a nursing home.
Randon was born in Alès, France, on February 11, 1904 to Paul Randon and Alphonsine Delphine Yéta Soutoul. Lucile had two older brothers and a twin sister, Lydie, who died a year after Lucile was born.
Randon’s grandpa was a minister, despite the fact that she grew up in a nonreligious Protestant family.
She later became a governess to three children in Marseille when she was 12 years old in 1916. When she was engaged as both a governess and a teacher by a renowned family in Versailles in 1922, her position was raised.
While residing there, Randon became close to one of her older brothers, who had been appointed justice of the peace in nearby Houdan. After finishing her catechumenate at the Cénacle in Paris, she converted to Catholicism the following year at the age of 19.
Meanwhile, she worked in Versailles as a governess and teacher until 1936. Eight years later, Randon entered the Catholic charitable order ‘Daughters of Charity,’ and assumed the name Sister André in honor of her late brother.
Randon went on a mission to a hospital in Vichy after WWII ended, where she treated forty orphans and the elderly. Her mission lasted for twenty-eight years, until she was sent to night duty at a different hospital in La Baume-d’Hostun, Drôme, in 1973. Randon retired at the age of 75 in 1979 and joined the EHPAD in the Marches de Savoie, where she spent the following 30 years. On October 25, 2009, she was sent to a retirement home in Toulon.
Randon developed a visual impairment that was severe enough for her to be classified as blind in the 2010s. Pope Francis gave her a personal letter and a blessed rosary when she turned 115.
Randon continues to live at a Toulon nursing home, where her outlook on life is positive, despite her longing to be with her now-deceased loved ones.
Honorine Rondello became France’s oldest living person after her death on October 19, 2017. After Kane Tanaka’s death on April 19, 2022, she became the world’s oldest verified surviving person.
Randon tested positive for COVID-19 on January 16, 2021, during an outbreak at her retirement home in Toulon, where 81 of the 88 inhabitants were affected with the disease.
Randon showed no signs of illness, and on February 8, only days before her 117th birthday, it was announced that she had recovered, making her the world’s oldest confirmed person to be infected with the virus and to have survived it.
