French nun André, thought to be the world's oldest person, has died at the age of 118. She died in her sleep in a retirement home in Toulon in southern France on Tuesday night, said the spokesman for the facility, David Tavella, on Tuesday evening with the AFP news agency. "There is great sadness, but she wanted it, it was her wish, to get to her beloved brother. For her, it's a liberation."

The nun, real name Lucile Randon, survived two world wars and the Spanish flu. Since the death of Japanese Kane Tanaka last April, she has been considered the oldest person in the world. The French celebrated her 118th birthday on February 11th. Shortly before her 117th birthday, she had survived a corona infection.

The nun was born on February 11, 1904 in Alès, southern France, into a family of Protestant origin. It was not until she was a young adult that she was baptized Catholic. At the age of about 40 she joined the order of the Vincentians. For more than three decades she worked in a hospital in the city of Vichy, taking care of orphans and the elderly.

In an interview on her 116th birthday, she described the end of the First World War as one of the most beautiful events of her life, when her two brothers returned home unharmed: "That was very rare, there were more dead than two alive."

Even after she went blind and was in a wheelchair, Sister André spent a long time caring for other elderly people who were significantly younger than herself. "People say work kills, but work kept me alive. I worked until I was 108 was," she said in an interview with journalists last year. She also called for more charity: "People should help each other and love each other instead of hating each other. Then everything would be much better."

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