The world’s oldest person, Kane Tanaka of Japan, has died at the age of 119. As the local government of her hometown of Fukuoka, southwest of Japan, announced on Monday, Tanaka died on April 19. According to the Gerontology Research Group, French woman Lucile Randon is now the world’s oldest person at 118 years and 73 days. Japan’s oldest person is now 115-year-old Fusa Tatsumi from Kashiwara in Osaka Prefecture, according to the Health Ministry. Tanaka was born on January 2, 1903 as the seventh child, altogether there were eight siblings. In 1922 she married at the age of 19.
The couple had four children and adopted another. Tanaka supported the family by running a noodle shop when her husband and eldest son went to war against China that began in 1937. After the war, the couple ran a rice cake business. Tanaka experienced the reigns of a total of five Japanese emperors. At the age of 116, the Japanese woman was recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest person in the world.
Fountain of youth: good food and learning
When asked about the secret to her long life, she said “eating tasty food and learning.” One of her favorite foods was chocolate. Even at biblical age, Tanaka still had a great passion for mathematics and the board game Othello. According to the media, she got up at 6 a.m. and only went to bed around 9 p.m.
According to Kathpress, the now oldest person, the French nun Andre, lives in a retirement home in Toulon on the Mediterranean Sea and also survived a Covid 19 infection in January 2021. She has been the oldest living French woman since October 2017 and the oldest European since June 2019. Born Lucile Randon on February 11, 1904 in Ales, southern France, Sister Andre has lived through three French republics, ten popes and the German occupation of World War II. She began working as a nanny at the age of twelve and later became a tutor. Her employers also included the Peugeot family of carmakers. It was not until 1923, at the age of 19, that she was baptized. In 1944 she entered the Vincentian Order in Paris as a novice.
“The Good God Exaggerates”
Sister Andre has been living in the home since 2009, Kathpress continued, she was blind and was in a wheelchair. She has experienced many wars and catastrophes – and instead of complaining about her own physical difficulties, she complains above all that “people cannot live in harmony”. In an interview on her 115th birthday, she reported on her twin sister, who died in 2018: “She’s calling me, she’s pulling me. Pray for me that the good God won’t make me wait too long. He’s exaggerating!”
Source: Nachrichten
