Falling asleep without pain Spanish woman dies as the oldest person in the world at the age of 117
Maria Branyas was considered a "super grandma" in Spain. (Photo archive)
Image: dpa
The Catalan saw the end of her long life coming. (Photo archive)
Image: dpa
Maria Branyas was considered a "super grandma" in Spain. (Photo archive)
Image: dpa
The Catalan saw the end of her long life coming. (Photo archive)
Image: dpa
Spain bids farewell to the "super grandma". Maria Branyas was considered the oldest person in the world. Who will take the title now?
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- The Spaniard Maria Branyas has died at the age of 117.
- The Guinness Book of Records listed her as the oldest person in the world.
- Her successor is expected to be Tomiko Itooka from Japan, who was born 116 years ago.
According to the Guinness Book of Records, she was the oldest person in the world: Spain's Maria Branyas has died at the age of 117. This was announced by the woman's family on the X platform.
She died in a home in Olot, Catalonia - around 100 kilometers north-east of Barcelona - "the way she wanted to: in her sleep, peacefully and without pain", according to the statement.
The family had previously published a farewell message on behalf of the 117-year-old: "The time is near. Don't cry, I don't like tears. And above all, don't suffer because of me. Wherever I go, I will be happy."
Daughter attributes longevity to "good genes"
Branyas had been listed by the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest person in the world for more than a year and a half. She was born in San Francisco in the USA on March 4, 1907, and the family moved to Spain in 1915. Her great-grandmother had been living in a retirement home in Olot in north-eastern Spain for around 20 years. She is known in Spain as "Super Grandma".
Branyas' daughter attributed her mother's longevity to good genes in an interview last year. "She was never in hospital, she never broke a bone," she said on Spanish television. At the age of 113, Branyas survived a coronavirus infection in good health.
According to US gerontologists, Branyas' death means that the 116-year-old Japanese woman Tomiko Itooka (May 23, 1908) is now the oldest living person in the world.