Maria Branyas, an American-born Spaniard who was considered the world’s oldest person at 117, has died, her family said

MADRID– Maria Branyas, an American-born Spaniard who was considered the world’s oldest person at 117, has died, her family said Tuesday.

In a post on Branyas’ X-account, her family wrote in Catalan: “Maria Branyas has left us. She left as she wanted: in her sleep, in peace and without pain.”

The Gerontology Research Group, which verifies records of people estimated to be 110 years old or older, listed Branyas as the world’s oldest known person, following the death of French nun Lucile Randon last year.

The next oldest person listed by the Gerontology Research Group is 116-year-old Japanese woman Tomiko Itooka.

Branyas was born in San Francisco on March 4, 1907. After living for a few years in New Orleans, where her father founded a magazine, her family returned to Spain when she was young. Branyas said she has memories of crossing the Atlantic during World War I.

Her X-Account is called “Super Catalan Grandma” and has the description: “I am old, very old, but not a fool.”

At the age of 113, Branyas tested positive for COVID-19 but did not develop severe symptoms during the global pandemic that has killed tens of thousands of elderly Spaniards.

At the time of her death, she was living in a nursing home in the Catalan town of Olot.

Her family wrote that Branyas told them a few days before her death: “I don’t know when, but very soon this long journey will end. Death will find me exhausted because I have experienced so much, but I want to meet it with a smile and feel free and content.”