Maria Branyas Morera, the world’s oldest living person, passed away at the age of 117, her family announced on Tuesday, August 19, 2024.
Born in the United States, Branyas had lived through two world wars and spent the last two decades in the Santa Maria del Tura nursing home in Olot, northeastern Spain.
“Maria Branyas has left us. She died as she wished: in her sleep, peacefully and without pain,” her family shared on her social media account.
They added, “We will always remember her for her advice and her kindness.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Branyas posted that she felt “weak,” signaling her final moments. She wrote, “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.”
Branyas was officially recognized as the world’s oldest person by Guinness World Records in January 2023, following the death of French nun Lucile Randon at 118.
With Branyas’s passing, Japan’s Tomiko Itooka, born on May 23, 1908, at 116 years old, is now the world’s oldest living person, according to the US Gerontology Research Group.
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