Nun who survived coronavirus celebrates 117th birthday

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Nun Who Survived Coronavirus Celebrates 117Th Birthday
Sister Andre, who lives in the French city of Toulon, is listed as the second-oldest known living person in the world. Photo: Sainte-Catherine Laboure care home
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By John Leicester, Associated Press

A French nun who is believed to be the world’s second-oldest person, and who recently survived a bout of Covid-19, was celebrating her 117th birthday on Thursday.

Plans for the day included champagne and red wine, and a feast with her favourite dessert, a Mass in her honour and other treats to toast Sister Andre’s exceptional longevity through two world wars and her recent brush with coronavirus.

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David Tavella, communications manager for the nun’s care home in the southern French city of Toulon, said: “It’s a big day.

“She is in great shape. I went to see her this morning. She is really happy. She wanted me to tell her the schedule for the day again.”

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Some of Sister Andre’s great-nephews and great-great-nephews were expected to join a morning video call with her, and the bishop of Toulon was due to celebrate a Mass in her honour.

Mr Tavella said: “She was very proud when I told her. She said: ‘A Mass for me?'”

The menu for the birthday feast included a starter of foie gras, followed by capon with fragrant mushrooms and wrapping up with baked Alaska, the nun’s favourite dessert.

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“All of it washed down with red wine, because she drinks red wine. It’s one of her secrets of longevity. And a bit of champagne with dessert, because 117 years have to be toasted,” Mr Tavella said.

As for packing dozens of candles onto a cake, “we stopped trying a long time ago”, he added.

“Because even if we made big cakes, I’m not sure that she would have enough breath to blow them all out. You would need a fire extinguisher.”

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Sister Andre’s birth name is Lucile Randon.

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The Gerontology Research Group, which validates details of people thought to be 110 or older, lists her as the second-oldest known living person in the world, behind an 118-year-old woman in Japan, Kane Tanaka.

Mr Tavella told French media earlier this week that Sister Andre had tested positive for coronavirus in mid-January but that she had had so few symptoms that she did not even realise she was infected. Her survival made headlines both in France and beyond.

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