Spain's Maria Branyas, world’s oldest person, dies aged 117

MADRID: Maria Branyas, the oldest person in the world according to Guinness World Records, has died aged 117, her family said on X on Tuesday, reported German news agency (dpa).

The Spanish woman passed away in her sleep and "without pain" in a care home in the Catalan town of Olot, some 100 kilometres north-east of Barcelona, according to the statement.

Born March 4, 1907, Branyas had been known throughout Spain as Super-Grandma.

She survived both world wars and lived through the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939.

She also made it through two pandemics: The Spanish Flu pandemic that raged between 1918 and 1920 and the coronavirus pandemic.

According to Guiness World Records, she contracted Covid-19 in 2020 but made a full recovery within a few days, "becoming the world's oldest Covid-19 survivor".

Branyas was born to Catalan immigrants in San Francisco. The family returned to Catalonia when she was eight years old and she had been living in Girona province ever since.

In the last years of her life, Branyas worked with researchers from the University of Barcelona, who were conducting a scientific study on longevity. She called the research "my last contribution to society". Her motto on X, where she had nearly 19,000 followers, was: "I am old, very old, but not an idiot."

Branyas leaves behind three children, 11 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.

According to Guiness World Records, Branyas became "the world's oldest person" in January 2023 after the death of French nun Lucile Randon, at age 118.

Following the death of Branyas, Japan's Tomiko Itooka, aged 116, is expected to be given that title.

But they are all a long ways off from Jeanne Calment, another French nun, who lived for 122 years and 164 days.

-- BERNAMA

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