Five days before her 117th birthday, the oldest woman in Europe recovered from Covid-19. Lucile Randon, who is a nun and adopted the religious name of Sister Andrée, contracted the coronavirus in the retirement home where she lives, in Toulon (south-eastern France). Of the 88 residents, 81 were infected and 10 died.
Blind and partially deaf, Sister Andrée is lucid. In an interview with French radio last year, she said she suffered a lot during World War I, which started at the age of ten, and said she remembered the two brothers returning from the front lines, one of them seriously injured.
Granddaughter of a Protestant pastor, Lucile converted to Catholicism at the age of 27. She worked as a cleaning lady before joining a convent in 1944, at the age of 40. After World War II, he cared for the elderly and orphans for 28 years at the Vichy hospital.
According to the Gerontology Research Group, which certified her age, she is the second oldest woman in the world, after the Japanese Kane Tanaka, born in January 1903.
To French media, nursing home spokesperson David Tavella said Sister Andrée’s main complaint during her time with Covid-19 was “loneliness”. She had no symptoms, but had to be isolated in her room since January 16, when she was diagnosed, until her coronavirus tests came back negative.
After being unloaded and released to leave the room, the nun went to mass.