Spain's Oldest Woman Survives Coronavirus, Says Humanity Needs 'A New Order'

[Judi Lynn]

05/12/2020 11:29 pm ET

Maria Branyas, 113, said, “I won’t be able to help you.... But believe me, you need a new order.”

By Josephine Harvey

At 113 years old, María Branyas was already the oldest woman in Spain. Now she’s also among the oldest in the world to survive COVID-19, according to Spanish media.

Branyas tested positive for the coronavirus in April and spent several weeks isolated in her room at a care home in Olot, a Catalonian city in the country’s northeast, Spanish news agency EFE reported. Recently she tested negative.

According to posts last week on a Twitter account in her name ― established and run by Rosa Moret after her mother was named Spain’s oldest living person ― Branyas is grateful to the caregivers at her residence for their support during the illness.

She has lived in the same care home for two decades, EFE reported, and celebrated her 113th birthday there on March 4, just 10 days before Spain imposed strict lockdowns as COVID-19 cases skyrocketed in the hard-hit nation. She’s been unable to see her family since her birthday and has communicated instead over the phone.

Link to tweet

More:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/spain-113-year-old-woman-coronavirus-survivor_n_5ebb43ecc5b6bf83abbab14b

[flying rabbit]

1. Well done.

[iemitsu]

2. Good for you Maria and

many happy returns.

[virgogal]

3. Good lord,she looks fantastic.Wow!

[DURHAM D]

4. What an amazing woman.

from the article --

“In the solitude of my room, fearless and hopeful, I don’t quite understand what’s going on in the world. But I think nothing will be the same again. And don’t think about redoing, recovering, rebuilding. It will have to be done all over again and differently,” the tweet, which has been translated from Spanish, said.

“I won’t be able to help you. In fact, for my age, I will no longer be there. But, believe me, you need a new order, a change in the hierarchy of values and priorities.”

Branyas was born to Spanish parents in the U.S., in San Francisco, where her father worked as a journalist in 1907. She moved to Spain in 1915.

She also lived through the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-1919.

[hedda_foil]

5. Astonishingly incisive at 113 and counting. Another tweet of hers.

In her latest observations on Twitter, the centenarian criticized the way the elderly have been treated during the pandemic and sent her best to older people who are still struggling.

“It is very sad all that this pandemic has exposed. Older people do not deserve the forgetfulness they have received,” a tweet from her account on Tuesday read. “They fought and sacrificed time and dreams for you to have an identity and a quality of life today. They don’t deserve to leave the world that way.”

[DURHAM D]

6. Makes one wonder about her profession.

Obviously she is a great writer.


"But, believe me, you need a new order, a change in the hierarchy of values and priorities.”

ETA: I just changed my signature line.

[napi21]

7. She sure doesn't look like a 113 year old! Bless her & stay well. Does Spain's nursing homes treat

their residents differently than we do here? I doubt there are any 100+ residents in any of our nursing homes. We have a really high rate of death in ours too, I wonder what the real difference is?