Maria Branyas, a Catalan resident, turned 116 on 4 March 2023, making her the longest-living woman in the world.
Branyas has lived in the Santa Maria del Tura residence in Olot, Girona, for 22 years. She has lived through the most significant historical events of the 20th century and all those of the 21st century.
In January, she became the oldest person in the world after the death of Frenchwoman Lucile Randon, who previously held the title.
Branyas refrains from doing interviews to preserve his peace, but communicates through his Twitter account, where he has more than 10,000 followers.
She writes about her reality and current events from her perspective as the world’s oldest person.
Catalan-American Maria Branyas is the world’s longest-living woman
Recently, Branyas tweeted a commemorative message a few minutes before 9:00 am on her birthday. She wrote: “Good morning world. I am 116 years old today.”
The message was accompanied by a quote from Czech poet Jaroslav Seifert: “I had to grow old to learn to appreciate silence…. In silence emotional signals appear and in the crossroads of memory you detect names that time tried to drown out”.
The tweet contained an image of a newspaper with an article about his 116th birthday, all on a table with breakfast served.
In his previous tweet, he showed a fan his grandmother gave him a century ago, which had a message of love written on it when he was participating in spiritual exercises for young people in Banyoles, near Olot in 1926.
The director of the American film “The World’s Oldest Person”, Sam Green, visited Branyas with his team to discuss the project in which she will star.
The film is by Josh Penn and Alison Byrne Fields and filming will finish in 2024. Branyas reported that she would not be attending the premiere, saying, “So I won’t be there. Enjoy it if you’re alive.
Covid survivor
In 2020, Branyas survived COVID-19. She was born in San Francisco, USA, the daughter of a journalist from Pamplona who was responsible for the magazine “Mercurio”.
As a child, she returned to Spain, where she became the mother of three children and lived in several Catalan towns. For more than two decades, she has been living in the residence Santa Maria del Tura.
Branyas is followed in the ranking of centenarians by the Japanese Fusa Tatsumi, born only 52 days after her. They are followed by the American Edie Ceccarelli, born in February 1908.
The first eight positions in the ranking belong to women, three of them Japanese, three American and one French.
A life of struggle, sacrifice, tenacity and strength.
Branyas’ story shows that life can be meaningful and joyful, even in old age.
