Question: How do you pack enough candles on a birthday cake for one of the world’s oldest survivors of COVID-19? Answer: With 117 candles, you can’t.
A French nun believed to be the second oldest in the world was celebrating her 117th birthday on Thursday. There were plans for champagne and red wine, a celebration of her favorite dessert, a Mass in her honor, and other delicacies to fry Sister André’s exceptional longevity through two world wars and a recent coronavirus infection.
“It’s a great day,” David Tavella, communications manager for the nunnery in southern France in Toulon, told the Associated Press. “She is in excellent shape. I went to see her this morning. She’s really happy. He wanted me to tell him the day’s schedule again. ”
It was packed. Some of Sister André’s great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren were expected to join a video call for her in the morning, and the Bishop of Toulon was to celebrate a Mass in her honor.
“She was very proud when I told her. He said, “A Mass for me?” Tavella said.
The menu for her birthday party included a foie gras appetizer, followed by capon with fragrant mushrooms and wrapped with baked Alaska, the nun’s favorite dessert.
“They all washed with red wine, because she drank red wine. It is one of her secrets to longevity. And a little champagne with dessert, because 117 years must be fried “, said Tavella.
As for wrapping dozens of candles on a cake, “we stopped trying a long time ago,” he added. “Because even if we make big cakes, I’m not sure they would have enough breath to throw them all away. You would need a fire extinguisher. ”
André André’s birth name is Lucile Randon. Gerontology Research Group, which validates details about people believed to be 110 or older, lists her as the second oldest known person in the world, behind a 118-year-old woman from Japan, Kane Tanaka.
Tavella told French media earlier this week that Sister André tested positive for coronavirus in mid-January, but had so few symptoms that she did not even realize she was infected. Her survival caused a stir both in France and abroad.
“When the whole world suddenly started talking about this story, I realized that Sister André was a bit like an Olympic flame in a world tour that people want to catch, because we all need a little hope in this moment, ”Tavella said.
Coincidentally, Tavella was celebrating her 43rd birthday on Thursday.
“We often joke that she and I were born on the same day,” he said. “I never tell myself that he is 117 years old because he is so easy to talk to, regardless of age. Only when he talks about the First World War as if he lived it, do I realize: “Yes, he lived it!” ”