Maria Branyas Morera, recognized as the world’s oldest living person, has passed away at the age of 117. Branyas, who was born in the United States and lived through both World Wars, died peacefully in her sleep, her family confirmed on Tuesday.
In a statement posted on her account on social media platform X, her family announced, “Maria Branyas has left us. She died as she wished: in her sleep, peacefully and without pain.”
The family added, “We will always remember her for her advice and her kindness.”
Branyas had resided for the past two decades at the Santa Maria del Tura nursing home in Olot, northeastern Spain. Earlier on Tuesday, she had posted a message expressing her frailty and impending death. “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.
Guinness World Records had officially recognized Branyas as the world’s oldest person in January 2023, following the death of French nun Lucile Randon, who was 118.
With Branyas’s passing, the title of the world’s oldest living person now goes to Japan’s Tomiko Itooka, born on May 23, 1908, who is currently 116 years old, according to the US Gerontology Research Group.
