A 115-year-old American-born Spanish great-grandmother is the likely new doyenne of humanity, a Guinness World Records consultant said on Wednesday after the death of French sister André, 118, who owned this title.
Maria Branyas Morera has been a resident of the Santa Maria del Tura retirement home in the town 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 good health and is surprised and grateful for the interest aroused”,
specifies the establishment.
"Genetic"
Senior gerontology consultant for Guinness World Records Robert D. Young said that Maria Branyas Morera is the new dean of humanity as
"probable"
.
"But it is not confirmed at the moment
," he wrote in an email to AFP.
The Guinness organization must make an official decision after checking official documents and interviewing the family of Maria Branyas Morera, said Robert D. Young, who is also director of the Gerontology Research Group's supercentenarian research database. .
Maria Branyas Morera survived the 1918 flu pandemic (also called the 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 said was due to
"genetics"
.
“She never went to the hospital, she never broke anything”
, said Rosa Moret on Wednesday on Catalan regional television.
Maria Branyas Morera was born in San Francisco (western United States) on March 4, 1907, shortly after her family originally from Spain moved from Mexico to the United States.
Her family then 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 is already deceased -, 11 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.
Read alsoFrom the Belle Époque to the present day: the very long life of Sister André, new dean of humanity
The French sister André, born Lucile Randon on February 11, 1904 in Alès, in the south of France, was since April 2022 the dean of known humanity.
She died in her sleep overnight from Monday to Tuesday at her retirement home in Toulon, southern France.
No official organization assigns these titles of dean or dean, but specialists agreed that Sister André was so far the oldest living person whose marital status had been verified.
The Guinness Book of Records also recorded this record on April 25, after the death at 119 of Japanese Kane Tanaka.