Lucille Randon has survived the Spanish flu pandemic, two world wars and now COVID-19, after beating the virus on the eve of her 117th birthday on Thursday.

Randon is the oldest person in Europe and tested positive for the virus on January 16, forcing her to isolate from her fellow residents at her nursing home in Toulouse. Despite the positive test and being in a high-risk category, Randon didn't experience any symptoms.

The French nun has been allowed to rejoin her friends at the home just in time for her birthday celebrations, but will celebrate with a smaller number of people as a precaution.

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Davide Tavella, a spokesman for the Sainte Catherine Laboure retirement home, revealed Randon's response to learning she had the illness to Var Matin newspaper. 

"She has been very lucky," he said. "She didn't ask me about her health but about her habits. For example, she wanted to know if meal or bedtime schedules would change.

"She showed no fear of the disease. On the other hand, she was very concerned about the other residents."

Despite the risk the virus poses to elderly people, Randon, who is blind and uses a wheelchair to move around her retirement home, says she wasn't afraid of having the illness.

She told French broadcaster BFM: "No, I wasn't scared, because I wasn't scared to die. I'm happy to be with you, but I would wish to be somewhere else – to join my big brother, and my grandfather and my grandmother." 

Randon, who was born on February 11, 1904, is officially recognized as the second oldest living person in the world, behind Japan's Kane Tanaka, who is 118 years old, according to the Gerontology Research Group's (GRG) World Supercentenarian Rankings List.