French nun Lucile Randon, the world’s oldest known person, died Tuesday in her sleep at a nursing home in Toulon. She was 118.

“There is great sadness, but … it was her desire to join her beloved brother. For her, it’s a liberation,” David Tavella with the Sainte-Catherine-Labouré nursing home told Agence France-Presse.

Randon, known as Sister André, was born on Feb. 11, 1904, in southern France. She worked as a governess and teacher before joining a convent in 1944, retiring in 1979. In 2021, there was a COVID-19 outbreak in her nursing home, which killed 10 people. “She showed no fear of the illness, in fact she was more worried about the other residents,” Tavella said.

She became the world’s oldest known person after Kane Tanaka of Japan died in 2022 at the age of 119. When asked by a French radio station her secret for longevity, Randon responded, “I’ve no idea … only God can answer that question. I’ve had plenty of unhappiness in life and during the 1914-1918 war when I was a child, I suffered like everyone else.”