Un birthday like no other. Sister André, probable dean of Europeans and vice-dean of humanity, reached the milestone of 118 years on Friday February 11 in Toulon and, as usual, will celebrate it with her traditional porto-chocolate cocktail and a touch of lassitude.
“I can’t stand them anymore, the guests, I’m less friendly,” explained the nun recently to Agence France-Presse, during an investigation into these super-centenarians who defy science: “I was always admired for my wisdom and my intelligence, and now people make fun of me because I’m refractory. »
“I’m thinking of withdrawing from this business, but they don’t want to,” she insisted with her caustic humour, seeming to regret that God had forgotten her in his call to leave the world. Even if no official organization awards the “title” of dean, Sister André, born Lucile Randon on February 11, 1904 in Alès, in the Gard, is one of the oldest women in France, even in Europe. She is just 13 months younger than the oldest known to mankind, Japan’s Kane Tanaka, who turned 119 in early January.
The mayor of Toulon and the deputy of Var expected
In the morning, Sister André will receive a visit from the local deputy Geneviève Levy (Les Républicains), accompanied by the mayor of Toulon Hubert Falco, whom she greatly appreciates, especially since the day he knelt down to tie her shoelaces.
Then, in the afternoon, for the birthday chocolate cake, it will be the archbishop of the diocese of Fréjus-Toulon, Dominique Rey, who will visit him, David Tavella told Agence France-Presse, in charge of communication for the Sainte-Catherine-Labouré residential establishment for the elderly and dependent (Ehpad), who is his confidant, “his impresario” as he likes to call himself.
Because this lady, who has become blind and who lives badly at being deprived of her freedom in her wheelchair, keeps her desire to exchange views intact. As in the period that she considers the happiest of her life, when she was an au pair in Paris: “I was 40 years old, it was 80 years ago. Paris was magnificently beautiful. I, who had only lived in the Gard, in an ugly little town, arrived in a radiant town. »
His family also present on Saturday
Coming from a non-practicing Protestant family, Sister André, written in the masculine in homage to one of her three brothers, was a governess before entering orders late in life, within the company of the Daughters of Charity.
She worked until the end of the 1970s and then spent 30 years in an Ehpad in Savoie before arriving in the Toulon establishment where she rubbed shoulders with around fifteen other nuns at the morning service. She still has grand-nephews and many great-grand-nephews, some of whom will come to see her on Saturday.