The age-old Spanish woman Maria Braniasthe world’s oldest person, died today at the age of 117 in Olot in northeastern Spain, her family announced in X.
Branias had survived the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, two world wars, the Spanish Civil War, as well as COVID-19, which she contracted in 2020 shortly after her 113th birthday, and from which she recovered in a few days.
“Maria Branias left us. She died as she wanted: in her sleep, peacefully and without suffering. A few days ago he told us: ‘One day I will leave here (…) and I will cease to exist in this body. I don’t know which day, but it’s very close, this long journey will end. Death will find me exhausted for having lived so long, but I want it to find me smiling, free and content.”her relatives say in their statement released shortly before 11:30 local time (12:30 Greek time).
“I feel weak. My time is coming. Don’t cry, I don’t like tears. And above all don’t feel sorry for me. Wherever I go I will be happy”also refers to that account on X that her family manages.
Guinness record
Maria Branias was the oldest person in the world, according to the US Gerontology Research Group and according to the Guinness Book of Records.
He had been described as the oldest person in the world after the death of the French woman Lucille Radon aged 118 in January 2023.
After Brania’s death, the oldest person in the world is now the Japanese woman Tomiko Itokawho was born on May 23, 1908 and is now 116 years old, according to the American Gerontology Research Group.
The French woman Jean Calmanwho died in 1997 at the age of 122 years and 164 days, is the world’s oldest person on record.
“Absolute Clarity”
Branias lived in Santa Maria del Tura nursing home in Olot in Catalonia for over 20 years.
Born on March 4, 1907 in San Francisco, California in the western United States, where her family had immigrated, she had returned to Spain in 1915.
In 1931 she had married a doctor, who died at the age of 72. He had three children, one of whom died aged 86, as well as 11 grandchildren and many great-grandchildren.
Her youngest daughter, eighty-year-old Rosa Moret, once said that her mother “never went to the hospital and never broke anything.”
A team from the University of Barcelona had studied her DNA to shed light on the reasons for her longevity. One of the researchers, Mr Manel Estegerstated that he was surprised by her good health in an interview published in October 2023 in the Spanish newspaper ABC.
“It has absolute clarity. He remembers moments from when he was just four years old with impressive acuity and has no cardiovascular disease, which is common in people of advanced age. The only problems he has are mobility and hearing. She is incredible”the genetics researcher stated.
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