Maria Branyas, the American-born Spaniard who was believed to be the world's oldest person at 117, has died, her family announced.
MADRID — Maria Branyas, an American-born Spaniard believed to be the world's oldest person, has died at age 117, her family announced Tuesday.
In a post on Branyas' X account, her family wrote in Catalan: “Maria Branyas has left us. She passed away as she wished, in her sleep, peacefully and without pain.”
The Gerontology Research Group, which verifies the details of people believed to be over 110 years old, listed Branyas as the world's oldest person after the death of French nun Lucile Landon last year.
The next oldest person on the Gerontology Research Group's list is Japan's Tomiko Itooka, who is currently 116 years old.
Branyas was born in San Francisco on March 4, 1907. After living for a few years in New Orleans, where her father founded a magazine, her family returned to Spain when she was a young child. Branyas said she had fond memories of traveling across the Atlantic during World War I.
Her X-account is called “Super Catalan Granny” and describes herself as “I'm old. Very old, but I'm not stupid.”
Branyas, 113, tested positive for COVID-19 during the global pandemic but avoided developing the severe symptoms that have claimed the lives of tens of thousands of elderly people in Spain.
At the time of her death, she was living in a nursing home in the Catalan town of Olot.
A few days before his death, Branyas' family wrote that he said, “I don't know when, but soon this long journey will be over. Death will come when I am exhausted from all that I have lived, but I want to greet it with a smile, feeling free and fulfilled.”
