The San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the equivalent of a municipal plenary session, has unanimously approved a motion to honor Maria Branyas, the world's oldest living person. The Catalan woman, who was born in the American city on March 4, 1907—116 years and 249 days ago—is, according to the resolution, an example "of how to live with integrity, love, humanity and hope, at this critical moment in the history of the planet". The resolution, which was approved during the early hours of this Wednesday, has declared November 7, 2023 as 'Maria Branyas Day', both in the city and county of San Francisco. The president of the Board, Democrat Aaron Peskin, has read part of the motion, where the Catalan is formally praised.
Peskin has stated that "like Saint Francis, Maria Branyas has continually reinvented herself and her life is a great story of humanity over a long period of time." Furthermore, in the resolution, the city plenary explains that the citizen, who has resided in the Santa Maria del Tura d'Olot Residence for two decades, "continues to inspire the world with her longevity, perseverance, good sense of humor, , great institutional knowledge, energy and deep wisdom".
The motion reviews Branyas's life, which began in the North American municipality "within a Spanish expatriate family, of Catalan origin," who emigrated to San Francisco "in search of economic opportunities." In addition, he narrates that his family moved to New Orleans, as the Californian city was rebuilding after a devastating earthquake and fire in 1906, a year before Branyas was born. The family remained in the United States until they returned to Catalonia in 1915, on a boat trip in the middle of World War I where her father lost his life and she was deaf in one ear due to an accident playing with her brothers.
She also mentions that she married the traumatologist Joan Moret in 1931, with whom she had three children - and now has eleven grandchildren -, that she was a nurse in a field hospital on the national side during the Spanish Civil War, and that she continued as a nurse and her husband's assistant until he died in 1976. During the 1990s, Branyas, now in her 80s, traveled to countries such as Egypt, Italy, the Netherlands and England, developing hobbies such as sewing, music, reading and playing the piano, which he did until he was 108 years old. Since 2000, she has lived in the Olotina residence, where her mobility and hearing have deteriorated. That's why she uses text technology to communicate.
The motion also highlights the scientific studies underway linked to it, such as the Branyas Project, on the impact of Covid on patients in nursing homes, or the research led by Dr. Manel Esteller, who is studying their DNA to to know the secret of his longevity and to discover "why his body is younger than his age," in Peskin's words.
On January 17 of this year, he became the world's oldest person still alive. She is approximately half a year away from entering the ranking of the 10 oldest people in history, and about five years and nine months from Jeanne Calment, the oldest person who has never existed as verified by the Gerontology Research Group association. that nourishes the list of Guinness records for longevity.
The initiative for the San Francisco motion comes from North American filmmaker Sam Green, who is making a documentary collecting testimonies from people who have been the oldest in the world, including Maria Branyas. In fact, a few months ago he went to the Girona town of Olot, where he was able to meet her. "I was positively surprised to see that she is fantastic, sharp and has a good sense of humor," she explained last March to Catalan News, the English-language ACN portal.
