Contaminated in January, Sister André defeated the Covid. Almost as if nothing had happened. And this Thursday, she will blow out her 117 candles.
A beautiful story, in these times when everyone would like to see this damn coronavirus disappear, it also feels good. Sister André’s is unquestionably one of them. And for good reason: this Thursday, this Frenchwoman will celebrate her 117 years.
Even if no official body awards the “title” of dean of France, Sister André, born Lucile Randon, for civil status, February 11, 1904, is one of the oldest women in the country, even in Europe.
His birthday tastes of resurrection this year in his nursing home in Toulon (South East), brutally affected for the first time by Covid-19 in January, with 81 positive cases and ten deaths.
Sister André barely remembers it: “I’m not sure I got it. I am told that I had it, I was very tired, it is true, but I do not realize it. I didn’t realize. I was left lying down, ”she told AFPTV.
But behind his shoulder, David Tavella, the communications officer of the Sainte-Catherine-Labouré nursing home, does not hide that this cluster has tested everyone. Confined, “she lived a triple confinement: in her wheelchair, in her room and without visitors”.
“So his birthday, it invigorates us, we will use it to restore life”, he adds.
On the program, there will be an exceptional mass in this establishment which has ten other nuns.
The chef also had to dip into his budget for a meal worthy of the event: port, foie gras, capon fillet with porcini mushrooms and of course a Norwegian omelette, Sister André’s favorite dessert.
Port is a little secret stolen from Jeanne Calment, who died at the age of 122 and still holds the record for longevity in France.
A videoconference with grand-nephews and great-grand-nephews deprived of visits will also be organized in honor of the one who is described as a “woman of spirit, exceptional, very touching”.
She has known … 19 presidents
Born in Alès (South), in a non-practicing Protestant family, the only girl surrounded by three brothers, Sister André was a governess in several families, in Paris and in the provinces.
She was baptized at 26 and took orders quite late, at 41, in the company of the Daughters of Charity. “I was a governess-teacher in Paris, and I felt very good about it. I wanted to push further, and be a charity girl. ”
Assigned to a hospital in Vichy (Center), she remained there for 31 years.
She worked until the end of the 1970s and then spent 30 years in an establishment for the elderly in the French Alps, before moving to an establishment in Toulon.
On Wednesday, the one who has known three republics and 19 presidents since her birth was sunbathing in the garden, surrounded by laurels, her hands clasped in prayer, her face to the side, her eyes closed. To younger people, she recommends being “courageous” and showing pity.
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