THE NEWLY-NAMED OLDEST person alive has said she would now like to beat the record of oldest person ever.

Sister André of France is now the oldest person alive at age 118 following the death of Japan’s Kane Tanaka, aged 119.

She said work and caring for others kept her spry.

“People say that work kills, for me work kept me alive, I kept working until I was 108,” the Catholic nun told reporters today in the tea-room of the hospice where she lives in the Mediterranean city Toulon.

Although she is now blind and gets around in a wheelchair, she used to care for other elderly people much younger than herself.

“People should help each other and love each other instead of hating. If we shared all that, things would be a lot better,” Sister André said.

Fellow nun Sister Therese, almost 89, wheels her to mass in the hospice’s little chapel each morning.

She said that Sister André had “a mission to serve others” and that “her deep faith helps her” keep going.

Born Lucile Randon in 1904 in Ales, also in southern France, Sister André’s days are punctuated by prayer, mealtimes and visits from other residents and hospice workers — as well as a steady flow of letters, almost all of which she responds to.

Last year, she even survived a Covid-19 infection, becoming a symbol of hope for people from around the world.

However, she rejects requests for locks of hair or DNA samples.

“Only the good Lord knows” the secret of her longevity, she said with a smile.

While she is “proud” to be the world’s oldest person, Sister André repeated that “it’s not nice being old, because I used to like taking care of others, making children dance, and now I can’t do that any more”.

But she also has a record to beat in mind: that of Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 in Arles, southern France, aged 122, the oldest confirmed age reached by any human being so far.

While Sister André does suffer from her limitations “she prays a huge amount and rises above it all,” said David Tavella, an activity leader at the hospice who has become her confidant.

She thinks to herself that Calment’s record “is within reach, if she’s going to stay on Earth, she might as well make it,” he said.

Sister André’s status as the oldest person alive has yet to be confirmed by Guinness World Records and there is no official institution to bestow the title.

Although other people have come forward saying they are even older than Calment, their claims are difficult to verify because of limited record-keeping in much of the world even in the early 20th century.

But Sister André is indeed the oldest “by a long way” of the confirmed super-centenarians according to French longevity tracker Laurent Toussaint.

The next contender is a Polish woman named Tekla Juniewicz aged 115.

© AFP 2022