MArie Branyas, the oldest person in the world, has died in a Spanish nursing home at the age of 117, according to her ex and a nursing home spokesman.
Branyas, an American native, officially became the world’s oldest person in January 2023, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, following the death of French nun Lucile Randon, who previously held the title.
“Maria Branyas has left us. She left as she wanted: in her sleep, in peace and without pain,” her family wrote in a post on her account on X.
In a second post, the family said she had told them that she would soon die. “I don’t know when, but very soon this long journey will come to an end,” she was quoted as saying.
Branyas’ age was confirmed by the Gerontology Research Group, a nonprofit organization that confirms the ages of supercentenarians – people who have lived 110 years or more.
She was born in San Francisco, California in 1907, but moved to Catalonia in 1915. She married a Catalan doctor named Joan Moret, with whom she had three children. Her husband died in 1976 at the age of 86, according to Guinness.
Branyas, who experienced the Spanish flu of 1918-1920, rose to fame in Spain in May 2020 after becoming the oldest person at the time to successfully recover from COVID-19.
“This pandemic has shown that older people are the forgotten ones of our society. They have struggled all their lives, sacrificing time and their dreams for the quality of life they have today. They do not deserve to leave the world in this way,” she told the Observer after her recovery.
