Maria Branyas Morera was born in San Francisco on 4 March 1907 – seven years before the start of World War 1.
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MORENA HAS LIVED THROUGH FIVE HISTORIC MILESTONES
María Branyas Morera has lived through two world wars, the Spanish civil war, the 1918 flu pandemic and Covid-19.
Now Guinness World Records has named the Californian-born woman the world’s oldest person.
In just over a month Morera will turn 116 years old.
This comes after the death of Lucile Randon in France.
Randon, a Roman Catholic nun who is also called Sister Andrè, died earlier this month at the age of 118.
She died at her nursing home in the French town of Toulon on 17 January 2023.
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MORENA WAS ALSO KNOWN AS THE OLDEST COVID SURVIVOR
Morera made global headlines after she survived Covid-19 in May 2020. This was still when the pandemic made Spain one of the hardest-hit countries before the availability of vaccines.
She was believed to be the oldest Covid survivor at one point before Randon survived the virus herself.
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MORERA SAYS LUCK AND GOOD GENETICS IS KEY TO LONGEVITY
“Order, tranquility, good connection with family and friends, contact with nature, emotional stability, no worries, no regrets, lots of positivity and staying away from toxic people”
is what Branyas credits with her longevity, according to the Guinness site.
Morera was born in San Francisco on 4 March 1907, a year after her parents moved from Spain to the US. Over the next eight years, the family moved to Texas and New Orleans. Apparently after her father found the Spanish-language magazine Mercurio, they returned to Spain and settled in Catalonia.
Ever since, Morera has gone through various milestones, on scales large and small.
“I think longevity is also about being lucky,” Morera said, Guinness officials added. “Luck and good genetics.”
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