Supercentenarian Profile

Fanny Godin

Born:

1902-05-27

Huy, Liège

Belgium

Died:

2014-09-07

Zoutleeuw, Flemish Brabant

Belgium

✔ Age Certified by LongeviQuest

Fanny Félicie Florentine Pardon-Godin was a validated Belgian supercentenarian.

BIOGRAPHY

Fanny Godin was born in Huy, Liège, Belgium, on 27 May 1902, to parents Albert Edouard Hyacinthe Godin (1859–1931) and Caroline Louise Marie Adelaïde Prion (1867–1958). She had three older sisters: Marguerite Adéle Marie (1889–1972), Emma Florentine Marie (1891–1962), and Suzanne Marie Georgina (1895–1980).

She was born on Avenue Godin, a street named after her family, whose paper mill had been operating successfully since 1757. The Godin family was immensely wealthy, and Fanny enjoyed a privileged upbringing. She spent her childhood swimming in the Meuse, canoeing, ice skating, and taking ballet lessons. At the age of 16, she followed in the footsteps of her much older sisters by spending time in the United Kingdom.

In 1940, during the Second World War, Fanny fled toward Brussels, where she joined Jacques Edouard André Pardon (1907–1977), the scion of a distinguished family of lawyers and her future husband. They had first met years earlier in Ransberg, in the Hageland region near Kortenaken. They married in Ben-Ahin, Huy, on 15 May 1941.

Neither Jacques nor Fanny ever needed to work, as both came from exceptionally wealthy families. Shortly after the liberation of Belgium in 1944, they returned to Jacques’s stately home in Ixelles. Their first child, Jean-Albert, died during childbirth. In 1946, their only surviving child, Claude, was born. At that time, Fanny was already 44 years old, while Jacques was 39.

Reportedly, Jacques became increasingly withdrawn and depressed in his later years. In 1977, while staying in Torremolinos, he went for an evening walk alone along the rocky shoreline at low tide. The following morning, his lifeless body was found on the beach. He had drowned, just weeks before his 70th birthday. After Jacques’s death, Fanny retreated even further into her apartment in Ixelles. Despite its being on an upper floor without a lift, she continued to live there independently for nearly three decades, well into old age. She never became a grandmother. At the age of 102, Claude brought her mother back to the Hageland, where she spent the final years of her life.

Fanny Godin passed away in Zoutleeuw, Flemish Brabant, Belgium, on 7 September 2014, at the age of 112 years, 103 days.

RECOGNITION

On 11 May 2012, shortly before her 110th birthday, she became the oldest living person in Belgium, following the passing of 111-year-old Germaine Degueldre. Upon her own passing, she was succeeded by Anna de Guchtenaere.

On 11 January 2014, at the age of 111 years, 229 days, she surpassed Degueldre’s final age, becoming the second-oldest person ever to have lived in Belgium, only after Joanna Deroover.

Her age was validated by the European Supercentenarian Organisation (ESO) on 23 April 2020.