She survived two world wars, the Spanish flu and even a corona infection: And now the French nun André, at 118, is believed to be the oldest person in the world.

After the death of 119-year-old Japanese Kane Tanaka, announced on Monday, Sister André is considered the successor.

She was already the oldest woman in Europe.

And Sister André has another goal in mind, as the spokesman for her retirement home in Toulon in southern France, David Tavella, reports: She wants to beat Jeanne Calment, a French age record holder, who died in 1997 at the age of 122.

Sister André only jumped from death last year.

Shortly before her 117th birthday, she contracted a corona infection.

"I wasn't scared," she said afterwards of the virus.

Death doesn't frighten her.

The nun's corona infection made headlines around the world.

However, the virus could not harm her.

"I didn't even realize I had it," she told AFP.

Because the nun of the French Order of Saint Vincent remained without symptoms.

Sister André found it difficult during the corona infection, above all “being trapped three times over”, said Tavella, spokesman for the old people’s home at the time.

"Tied to the wheelchair, isolated in her room and without visitors." Because she is particularly happy "if you pay attention to her," said the spokesman during another AFP visit to the nursing home last winter.

Your day starts at seven in the morning

Sister André always leaves her door open to visitors: she has kept her faith in humanity.

Your day starts at seven in the morning.

The blind woman is pushed in her wheelchair to morning prayers, which she never misses.

The nun, whose real name was Lucile Randon, was born on February 11, 1904 in Alès, southern France, into a family of Protestant origin.

It was not until she was a young adult that she was baptized Catholic.

At the age of about 40 she joined the order of the Vincentians.

For more than three decades she worked in a hospital in the city of Vichy, taking care of orphans and the elderly.

Sister André has experienced ten popes and 19 French presidents in the course of her life.

However, she describes the end of the First World War as one of the most beautiful events of her life, when her two brothers returned home unharmed: "That was very rare, there were more likely to be two dead than two alive."

She celebrated her 118th birthday in February with a glass of port wine and chocolate cocktail.

She treats herself to a glass of the sweet port wine every day and lets her know when she visits.

What bothers her, however, is that she "can no longer make any gestures on her own".

She needs help with everything, the nun complains with a mischievous look on her face.