Nun who beat COVID-19 enjoys 117th birthday with red wine, Mass

Break out the birthday candles. Lots of them.

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A French nun, believed to be the world’s second-oldest person, has beaten COVID-19 and celebrated her 117th birthday in style on Thursday.

Sister André, who was born Lucile Randon on Feb. 11, 1904, enjoyed champagne, red wine, and a Mass in her honor, the BBC reported.

The menu for her birthday included roasted capon with mushrooms and sweet potatoes as the main course, followed by a two-cheese platter -- Roquefort, and goat cheese -- and maybe a few glasses of red wine, The New York Times reported. For dessert, Sister André enjoyed a raspberry and peach flavored Baked Alaska, along with a glass of champagne.

This week, Sister André became the oldest known person to have survived COVID-19, the newspaper reported.

“It’s a big day,” David Tavella, the communications manager for the nun’s care home in the southern French city of Toulon, told The Associated Press. “She is in great shape. I went to see her this morning. She is really happy. She wanted me to tell her the schedule for the day again.

“All of it washed down with red wine, because she drinks red wine. It’s one of her secrets of longevity,” Tavella said. “And a bit of champagne with dessert, because 117 years have to be toasted.”

The Gerontology Research Group, which validates details of people believed to be aged 110 or older, has confirmed Sister André as the second-oldest living person in the world. Only Kane Tanaka of Japan, a 118-year-old woman who was born Jan. 2, 1903, is older.

The nun, who is also Europe’s oldest person, took the name of Sister André in 1944, according to the BBC. She tested positive for COVID-19 on Jan. 16 but did not develop any symptoms, telling French newspaper Var-Matin that she “didn’t even realize I had it.”

The nun has been isolated from other residents in her retirement home, located in the southern France city of Toulon. She is blind and uses a wheelchair, according to the AP.

“She showed no fear of the disease,” Tavella told Var-Matin. “On the other hand, she was very concerned about the other residents.”

“She kept telling me, ‘I’m not afraid of COVID because I’m not afraid of dying, so give my vaccine doses to those who need them,’” Tavella told the Times.

Eighty-one of the 88 residents where Sister André lives tested positive, and 10 have died, the Times reported.

When asked by French broadcaster BFM if she was scared of having COVID-19, Sister André said, “No, I wasn’t scared, because I wasn’t scared to die.

“I’m happy to be with you, but I would wish to be somewhere else -- to join my big brother, and my grandfather and my grandmother.”

The nun’s survival of COVID-19 made headlines worldwide.

“When the whole world suddenly started talking about this story, I understood that Sister André was a bit like an Olympic flame on a ‘round the world tour that people want to grab hold of, because we all need a bit of hope at the moment,” Tavella told the AP.

Tavella also had a birthday on Thursday. He turned 43.

“We often joke that she and I were born on the same day,” Tavella told the AP. “I never tell myself that she is 117 because she is so easy to talk to, regardless of age. It is only when she talks about World War I as though she lived through it that I realize, ‘Yes, she did live through it!’”

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