The world’s oldest person has died at age 117. American-born Maria Branyas, who lived in Spain, died peacefully in her sleep and without pain, her family posted on Twitter. Born in San Francisco to a Spanish family in 1907, Branyas spent part of her childhood in New Orleans before returning to live in Catalan, Spain. She tweeted under the name “Super Catalan Grandma” and said she was “very old, but not an idiot.”
At 113, she contracted COVID-19, but unlike thousands of fellow Spaniards, she pulled through without developing significant symptoms. Days before her death, she told her relatives that her long journey would soon end, but she was ok with it because she felt free and would meet her end “with a smile.”
Guinness World Records recognized Ms. Branyas as the world’s oldest person last year after French nun Lucile Randon died at 118. According to the US Gerontology Research Group, the oldest individual on earth is now Tomiko Itooka of Japan, who was born in May 1908 and is now 116.
Japan has a disproportionately high number of the world’s oldest people, with three in the top ten of the oldest ever recorded. Experts say this is no coincidence but the result of Japan’s highly positive attitude to aging, its healthcare system, its cohesive culture, and healthy diet of fish, rice, and vegetables. The country’s oldest individual was Kane Tanaka, who died at age 119.
Tanaka takes second place to the world’s oldest-ever individual, Jeanne Calment of France. Calment died in 1997 at age 122. Her remarkable life is extensively documented, and it is known that she cycled her bike until she was 100, lived longer than any of her family members—including her grandson—and continued smoking until she was 117.
Ms. Branyas’s remarkable journey included the First and Second World Wars, the 1918 flu pandemic, and the Spanish Civil War. Her daughter attributed her longevity to her genetic makeup and said she had never been ill, never been to the hospital, and never broken a bone. Rosa Moret said after her death, “She is fine; she has no pain.”
