World’s oldest person Maria Branyas Morera dies aged 117: US-born Spanish pensioner passes away after revealing ‘the time is near’ in heartbreaking final message

The world’s oldest living person, Spanish retiree Maria Branyas Morera, who was born in the United States and survived a plague epidemic and two world wars, has died at the age of 117, her family announced.

“Maria Branyas has left us. She died as she wished: in her sleep, peacefully and without pain,” her family wrote on her account on X. “We will always remember her for her advice and her kindness,” they said.

Branyas lived the last twenty years of her life in the Santa Maria del Tura nursing home in the city of Olot in northeastern Spain. She celebrated her 117th birthday there last March.

Experts were impressed with her mental and physical health, but in a heartbreaking final message to her social media followers on Tuesday, she warned she felt “weak.”

“The time is near. Don’t cry, I don’t like tears. And above all, don’t suffer for me,” she said on the account, which is run by her family. “Wherever I go, I will be happy.”

Branyas was born in San Francisco in 1907. Pictured: Branyas in 1925 when she was just 18

Guinness World Records officially recognized Branyas as the world’s oldest person in January 2023, after French nun Lucile Randon died at the age of 118.

After Branyas’ death, the oldest living person in the world is Japanese Tomiko Itooka. She was born on May 23, 1908 and is 116 years old, according to the American Gerontology Research Group.

Branyas was born in San Francisco in 1907, as the city was battling a second wave of the bubonic plague.

Her family decided to return to Spain in 1915, during World War I, after her father Josep fell ill.

He died of tuberculosis on the ship they were crossing the Atlantic Ocean. His now 100-year-old daughter was injured in a fall on the same voyage and later discovered she had become deaf in one ear.

She survived two world wars, the Spanish flu pandemic, the Spanish Civil War and most recently Covid-19.

In 1931, at the age of 23, she married the Catalan doctor Joan Moret. Her husband died over 46 years ago, when he was 71.

She wrote on his anniversary that she will ‘always carry him in my heart every day’

She had three children, eleven grandchildren and thirteen great-grandchildren. She attributes her longevity to “order, peace” and “avoiding toxic people.”

Ms. Morera became the world’s oldest person after the death of French nun Lucile Randon in January 2023

Mrs. Morera married the Catalan doctor Joan Moret in 1931 at the age of 23

She believes it is important to live a stress-free life and has lived in a sheltered housing facility in the Catalan city of Olot since she was 92.

She played the piano, read newspapers and exercised every morning until she was 105.

Unusually for her age, Ms Morera is an active user of the social media site X, formerly Twitter, and regularly sends her more than 16,000 followers updates on her health and wellbeing.

She celebrated her 117th birthday in March with a cake, posting the following to mark the occasion: ‘Good morning, world. Today I turn 117 years old. I’ve come this far.’

Scientist Manel Esteller told Spanish news channel ABC at the time: ‘She has a completely clear head.

‘She can still remember events from when she was just four years old with impressive clarity, and she does not have cardiovascular disease, which is common in the elderly.

‘It is clear that there is a genetic component, because there are several family members who are over 90 years old.’

To help others, Ms. Morera agreed to undergo a series of tests so scientists could learn more about the secrets of longevity.

The title of oldest person to have ever lived belongs to Jeanne Louise Calment. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, her lifespan is 122 years and 164 days.