Maria Branyas Morera lived through two world wars and two pandemics

The woman who lived to be the oldest person in the world shared her simple secret to a long life before she passed away.

Maria Branyas Morera was born in the United States in 1907, but was living at a nursing home in Catalonia, Spain, when she died at the age of 117.

Maria Branyas Morera died in Spain. (X/@MariaBranyas112)

Her family announced the news on Tuesday (August 20), writing: “She died as she wished: in her sleep, peacefully and without pain. We will always remember her for her advice and her kindness.”

Morera experienced two pandemics and two world wars during her long life, and even survived getting Covid during the pandemic when she was 113, making her the world’s oldest survivor of the virus at the time.

Her family returned to their native Spain in 1915 after spending a few years in the US, and during the Spanish Civil War Morera and her husband, Dr Joan Moret, worked to treat wounded soldiers.

Moret sadly died in 1976, and Morera even outlived her eldest son, who passed away at the age of 86.

Morera died at the age of 117. (Guinness World Records)

She had been recognized by the Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest person in January 2023, after the former title holder, Lucile Randon, died at 117 years old.

But exactly how did she do it?

Well, according to Guinness World Records, there were a number of things Morera felt were important contributors to her longevity, and I’m sure a lot of us could do with taking note.

The list she gave included: “Order, tranquillity, good connection with family and friends, contact with nature, emotional stability, no worries, no regrets, lots of positivity.”

While a lot of these features require time, commitment and the ability to let go of your worries, there is one additional secret that’s much easier to achieve: “Staying away from toxic people.”

Morera believes toxic people have a bad impact on longevity. (Getty Stock Image)

You heard her! No one needs that kind of negativity in their life.

Morera did acknowledge there is some element of ‘being lucky’ involved too, though, adding it’s also about ‘luck and good genetics’.

Morera appeared to recognize when her time on Earth began to near its end, as she shared a post online in which she claimed: “The time is near.”

“Don’t cry, I don’t like tears,” she continued on her account, which was run by her family. “And above all, don’t suffer for me. Wherever I go, I will be happy.”

Following Morera’s death, the world’s oldest person is believed to be 116-year-old Tomiko Itooka from Japan.