Question: How do you stuff enough candles on a birthday cake for one of the world’s oldest survivors of COVID-19? Answer: this is not possible with 117 candles.
A French nun believed to be the second oldest person in the world celebrated her 117th birthday in style on Thursday. There were plans for champagne and red wine, a party with her favorite dessert, a mass in her honor and other treats to toast Sister André’s exceptional life span during two world wars and a recent coronavirus infection.
“It’s a big day,” David Tavella, communications manager at the nun’s nursing home in the southern French city of Toulon, told The Associated Press. ‘She is in excellent shape. I went to see her this morning. She is very happy. She wanted me to tell her the schedule for the day again. ”
It was packed. Some of Sister André’s grand-nephews and wizards were expected to participate in a morning video call for her, and the Bishop of Toulon would celebrate Mass in her honor.
‘She was very proud when I told her. She said, “Mass for me?” Tavella said.
On the menu for her birthday party was a foie gras entree, followed by capon with fragrant mushrooms and top off with baked Alaska, the nun’s favorite dessert.
‘Everything is washed down with red wine, because she drinks red wine. It’s one of her secrets to a long life. And a little champagne with dessert, because it takes 117 years to roast, ”said Tavella.
As for wrapping dozens of candles on a cake, “we stopped trying a long time ago,” he added. ‘Cause even if we made big cakes I’m not sure she would have enough breath to blow them all out. You need a fire extinguisher. “
Sister André’s birth name is Lucile Randon. The Gerontology Research Group, which validates data from people believed to be 110 or older, names her the second oldest known living person in the world, behind only a 118-year-old woman in Japan, Kane Tanaka.
Tavella told French media earlier this week that Sister André tested positive for the coronavirus in mid-January, but that she had so few symptoms that she did not even realize she was infected. Her survival made headlines both in France and abroad.
“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 because we all need a little hope right now. , ‘Said Tavella.
By a strange coincidence, Tavella celebrated its 43rd birthday on Thursday.
“We often joke that she and I were born on the same day,” he said. “I never tell myself she’s 117 because she’s so easy to talk to, regardless of age. It’s only when she talks about World War I as if she lived it, that I realize, “Yes, she lived it!” ”