Maria Branyas Morera, oldest person in the world, dies at the age of 117
Branyas was listed as the world’s oldest known person by the Gerontology Research Group following the death of French nun Lucile Randon last year.
ADVERTISINGThe oldest person in the world, Maria Branyas Morera, has died at the age of 117.
In a post On Branyas’ X-account, her family wrote in Catalan: “Maria Branyas has left us. She left as she wanted: in her sleep, in peace and without pain.”
The Gerontology Research Group, which verifies records of people estimated to be 110 years old or older, listed Branyas as the world’s oldest known person, following the death of French nun Lucile Randon last year.
Branyas was born on March 4, 1907, in San Francisco, shortly after her family moved to the United States from Spain.
After living for several years in New Orleans, where her father founded a magazine, her family returned to Spain when she was young.
Branyas said she had memories of crossing the Atlantic during World War I. Her X-username was “Super Catalan Grandma” and her account was described as: “I am old, very old, but not a fool.”
At the age of 113, Branyas tested positive for COVID-19 during the global pandemic, but he avoided the severe symptoms that have claimed the lives of tens of thousands of elderly Spaniards.
At the time of her death, she was living in a nursing home in the Catalan town of Olot.
Her family wrote that Branyas told them a few days before her death: “I don’t know when, but very soon this long journey will end. Death will find me exhausted because I have experienced so much, but I want to meet it with a smile and feel free and content.”
Her death means that the oldest living person listed by the Gerontology Research Group is now Japanese woman Tomiko Itooka, who is 116 years old.
Jeanne Louise Calment, a French woman who died in 1997 at the age of 122 years and 164 days, is still considered the oldest person who ever lived, according to known records.
