Maria Branyas Morera, World's Oldest Person, Passes Away at 117

The world's oldest known person, Maria Branyas Morera of Spain, died yesterday at the age of 117, her family said in a message to AFP. She was born in the United States in 1907 and lived through two world wars and two pandemics.

"Maria Branyas has left us. She died as she wished: in her sleep, peacefully and without pain," her family shared on her X account on Tuesday. "We will always remember her for her advice and her kindness."

Branyas had spent the past two decades at the Santa Maria del Tura nursing home in Olot, in north-eastern Spain. In her last posting she said that she was feeling weak and accepted that her end was near. "The time is near. Don't cry, I don't like tears. And above all, don't suffer for me. Wherever I go, I will be happy," she wrote.

In January 2023, the Guinness World Records considered Branyas to be the world's oldest person, following the death of the French nun Lucile Randon at the age of 118.

Now, the title of the oldest living person is borne by Japan's Tomiko Itooka, born on May 23, 1908; her current age is 116 years, according to the US Gerontology Research Group.

Branyas has lived through the 1918 flu, both world wars, and Spain's civil war. She contracted Covid-19 in 2020 just after her 113th birthday. Confined to her room in the nursing home, she re-covered fully.

Her youngest daughter, Rosa Moret, had attributed her mother's long life to good genes. "She has never been to the hospital, never broken any bones, she is fine, she doesn't have pain," Moret told Catalan television in 2023.

As Branyas said, "Long life is due to order, tranquility, good connection with family and friends, contact with nature, emotional stability, no worries, no regrets, lots of positivity, and staying away from toxic people," according to the Guinness World Records website. She also acknowledged that luck played a certain role in longevity. Later on, after speaking became very problematic for her, she turned to a voice-to-text device.

Born in San Francisco on 4 March 1907, shortly after her family had emigrated from Mexico to the US, Branyas spent time in Texas and New Orleans before her family returned to Spain in 1915 during the First World War. The Atlantic crossing was tinged with tragedy: her father died from tuberculosis toward the end of the journey, and his body was buried at sea.

Branyas and her mother eventually settled in Barcelona. In 1931, five years before Spain's 1936-39 civil war, she married a doctor. They lived together for 40 years until his death at 72. Branyas had three children, one of whom has passed away, 11 grandchildren and numerous great-grandchildren.

The case of Branyas is hence "one in a million." A researcher from the University of Barcelona, Manel Esteller, who analyzed Branyas's DNA to unravel the secrets of longevity, was also surprised by her health back in October 2023: "Her mind is completely lucid. With surprising clarity, she remembers episodes of when she was only four years old, and she has no cardiovascular disease, common in elderly people.". She only has mobility and hearing problems. It's incredible," the genetics professor told the Spanish newspaper ABC.

Jeanne Louise Calment, a French woman who lived to be 122 years and 164 days old holds the record as the oldest verified person to have ever lived, having passed away in 1997.