Maria Branyas Morera, the world’s oldest person, dies at age 117

(NEW YORK) — A woman classified by Guinness World Records as the oldest person in the world died on Aug. 19 at the age of 117, her family confirmed to The New York Times.

According to Guinness World Records, Maria Branyas Morera died in Spain at the Residència Santa María del Tura nursing home in Olot, Catalonia, where she has lived since 2000.

Guinness World Records passed on the title of “oldest woman living” to Branyas Morera when Lucile Randon, a nun also known as Sister André, died in 2023 at the age of 118.

Branyas Morera, according to Guinness World Records, was born March 4, 1907, in San Francisco but moved to Catalonia with her family and later called Barcelona home. She was married in 1931 to Joan Moret, a doctor, who preceded her in death in 1976. They had three children, two daughters and a son.

“Maria Branyas has left us. She has died as she wanted: in her sleep, peacefully and without pain. A few days ago she told us: ‘One day I will leave here. I will not try coffee again, nor eat yogurt, nor caress the Fairy… I will also leave my memories, my reflections,'” her family wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

Catalonia’s regional president, Salvador Illa, re-shared the post and expressed his condolences, adding in part, “We lose an endearing woman, who has taught us the value of life and the wisdom of the years.”