By I. Hansana, Jadetimes News
Maria Branyas Morera, World’s Oldest Person, Passes Away at 117
Maria Branyas Morera, recognized as the world’s oldest living person, has passed away at the age of 117. Born in the United States in 1907, Branyas lived through two world wars and two global pandemics. Her family announced her peaceful passing in a message on her social media account on Tuesday, stating that she died in her sleep, without pain, just as she had wished.
Branyas had spent the last 20 years of her life in the Santa Maria del Tura nursing home in Olot, a town in northeastern Spain. Despite her advanced age, she maintained an active presence on social media, with her family often sharing her thoughts. In a recent post, she acknowledged that her time was near, expressing that she did not want tears or suffering on her behalf and that she would be happy wherever she went.
Guinness World Records confirmed Branyas as the world’s oldest person in January 2023, following the death of French nun Lucile Randon, who was 118 years old. The title of the oldest living person now passes to Tomiko Itooka of Japan, born on May 23, 1908, and currently 116 years old.
Throughout her life, Branyas witnessed significant historical events, including the 1918 flu pandemic, both World Wars, and the Spanish Civil War. Remarkably, she survived a bout of COVID 19 in 2020, just weeks after her 113th birthday, making a full recovery despite being confined to her room.
Her daughter, Rosa Moret, attributed Branyas’s extraordinary longevity to genetics, noting that her mother had never been hospitalized, never broken a bone, and lived without pain. In an interview with Catalan television, Moret emphasized her mother’s good health and vitality, even in her later years.
Branyas herself attributed her long life to a combination of factors, including order, tranquility, strong family connections, emotional stability, and a positive outlook. She also believed that staying away from toxic people and maintaining a close relationship with nature contributed to her longevity.
Born in San Francisco on March 4, 1907, shortly after her family emigrated from Mexico to the United States, Branyas spent her early years in Texas and New Orleans before returning to Spain in 1915 during the tumult of World War I. The journey was marred by tragedy, as her father succumbed to tuberculosis during the Atlantic crossing, with his body being buried at sea.
Branyas and her mother eventually settled in Barcelona, where she married a doctor in 1931, just five years before the start of the Spanish Civil War. The couple lived together for four decades until her husband’s death at the age of 72. They had three children, 11 grandchildren, and numerous great-grandchildren.
Manel Esteller, a genetics professor at the University of Barcelona, was part of a research team that studied Branyas’s DNA to understand the factors behind her longevity. He remarked on her exceptional mental clarity and absence of cardiovascular disease, which is common among the elderly, noting that her only health issues were related to mobility and hearing. The record for the oldest verified person remains with Jeanne Louise Calment, a French woman who lived to be 122 years and 164 days old before passing away in 1997.
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