A 115-year-old American-born Spanish great-grandmother is likely humanity’s new eldest, a Guinness World Records consultant said on Wednesday following the death of French sister André, 118, who held the title.
• Also read: The oldest person dies at 118
Maria Branyas Morera has been living in the Santa Maria del Tura retirement home in the city of Olot in northeastern Spain for 20 years. The care home said it would be hosting a “small party” behind closed doors in the coming days to “celebrate this very special event”.
“She is in excellent health and is surprised and grateful for the interest that has been aroused,” says the facility.
Guinness World Records Senior Gerontology Consultant Robert D. Young said Ms Morera was humanity’s new doyenne, as “probably”. “But it’s not confirmed at this time,” he wrote in an email to AFP.
The Guinness Organization must make an official decision after reviewing official documents and interviewing Ms Morera’s family, said Young, who is also director of the Gerontology Research Group’s centennial research database.
Maria Branyas Morera survived the 1918 flu pandemic (also known as Spanish flu), two world wars and the Spanish Civil War.
The centenarian’s youngest daughter, Rosa Moret, 78, praised her mother’s good health, which she says is down to “genetics”.
“She never went to the hospital, she never broke anything,” Rosa Moret told Catalan regional television on Wednesday.
Maria Branyas Morera was born on March 4, 1907 in San Francisco, western United States, shortly after her family, originally from Spain, had moved to the United States from Mexico.
Her family moved to New Orleans (southern United States) in 1910 before returning to Spain in 1915. In 1931 she married a doctor who died at the age of 72.
She had three children, one of whom has died, 11 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.
French Sister André, born Lucile Randon on February 11, 1904 in Alès, southern France, had been Dean of Known Humanity since April 2022. She died in her sleep during the night from Monday to Tuesday in her retirement home in Toulon, southern France.
No official organization awards these titles Dean or Dean, but experts agreed that Sister André was the oldest living person to date whose marital status has been verified.
The Guinness Book of World Records also recorded this record on April 25, following the death of Japanese Kane Tanaka at the age of 119.