MADRID: Maria Branyas, the US-born Spaniard believed to be the world’s oldest living person at 117, has died, her family said Tuesday. In a post on Branyas’ X account, her family wrote in Catalan: “María Branyas has left us. She has gone as she wanted: asleep, in peace and without pain.” The Gerontology Research Group, which validates data on people believed to be 110 or older, has listed Branyas as the world’s oldest known person following the death of French nun Lucile Randon last year.
The next oldest person on the Gerontology Research Group list is currently Japanese Tomiko Itooka, who is 116. Branyas was born in San Francisco on March 4, 1907. After living for some 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 Ocean during World War I.
Guinness World Records mourns the passing of the world’s oldest person, María Branyas Morera https://t.co/aWCqrp8pg6— Guinness World Records (@GWR) August 20, 2024
Her X account is called “Super Catalan grandmother” and carries the description: “I am old, very old, but not stupid.” At 113, Branyas tested positive for COVID-19 during the global pandemic, but avoided developing the severe symptoms that claimed tens of thousands of older Spaniards.
At the time of his death he was living in a nursing home in the Catalan town of Olot.
His family wrote that Branyas told them days before his death: “I don’t know when, but very soon this long journey will come to an end. Death will find me exhausted from having lived so much, but I want to greet it with a smile, feeling free and satisfied.
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