{"id":112407,"date":"2021-02-11T18:17:40","date_gmt":"2021-02-11T18:17:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/?p=112407"},"modified":"2021-02-11T18:17:40","modified_gmt":"2021-02-11T18:17:40","slug":"europes-oldest-person-celebrates-117th-birthday-after-beating-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/markets\/europes-oldest-person-celebrates-117th-birthday-after-beating-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe's oldest person celebrates 117th birthday after beating COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"
PARIS (Reuters) – Europe\u2019s oldest person, French nun Sister Andre, celebrated her 117th birthday on Thursday with a cake and a prayer after shrugging off the coronavirus just weeks earlier.<\/p> Sister Andre, who lived through the Spanish flu more than a century ago, said the day had brought her immense joy.<\/p>\n \u201cI met all those that I loved and thanked God for giving them to me,\u201d said Lucile Randon, who took the name of Sister Andre when she joined a Catholic charitable order in 1944.<\/p>\n After a mass in her nursing home\u2019s private chapel, Sister Andre sat serenely in her wheelchair, her hands clasped tight, as she received a blessing from the bishop of Toulon.<\/p>\n COVID-19 restrictions meant family were unable to visit the blind but spirited nun. President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s office were among the callers who wished her well.<\/p>\n Born on Feb. 11, 1904, Sister Andre has witnessed two global pandemics. She was a young teenager when the Spanish flu struck, infecting an estimated one third of the world\u2019s population between 1918 and 1920.<\/p>\n Her brother died, one of at least 50 million lives lost during that pandemic, but she escaped infection.<\/p>\n Sister Andre tested positive for coronavirus on Jan. 16 but displayed no symptoms.<\/p>\n \u201cNo, I wasn\u2019t scared because I wasn\u2019t scared to die … I\u2019m happy to be with you, but I would wish to be somewhere else \u2013 join my big brother and my grandfather and my grandmother,\u201d she told BFM TV earlier this week.<\/p>\n Sister Andre is the world\u2019s second-oldest living person according to the Gerontology Research Group. The oldest is Japan\u2019s Kane Tanaka, who is 118.<\/p>\n