CNN —
She has survived the horrors of two world wars, a civil war and two global pandemics.
Now, US-born Maria Branyas Morera has been named the world’s oldest person by Guinness World Records (GWR) after French nun Sister André died aged 118 earlier this month.
Morera has spent the last 22 years in a nursing home in Catalonia, Spain, but she was born thousands of miles away in San Francisco nearly 116 years ago.
Her birth on March 4, 1907 came less than four years after the Wright brothers made the first ever powered flight and two years before construction of the ill-fated Titanic had even begun.
Although Morera is only a few weeks away from her 116th birthday, she is even using Twitter – with a little help from her daughter – to communicate with her thousands of followers.
“I’m old, very old, but not an idiot,” her Twitter bio reads.
Morera was born a year after her parents emigrated to the United States. Eight years later, the family moved back, but the journey proved treacherous.
Morera’s father died of pulmonary tuberculosis near the end of the transatlantic voyage, while she permanently lost hearing after a fall in one ear, according to GWR.
The family came to Barcelona during the First World War and Morera’s life also spanned the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War.
She is believed to be among the oldest people to have recovered from Covid-19, having tested positive for the virus in May 2020.
In a series of tweets in Catalan on Saturday, Morera, who has three children, 11 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren, said she was “surprised and grateful” for the interest sparked by her new status, but that the past few days have been “stressful”. and she would give no more interviews.
“I need peace and quiet,” she tweeted. “I’ve lived at Tura Residence for 22 years and I don’t want the everyday life of the residents or the staff who take care of us to change.”
When news of Morera’s record first broke, the Residència Santa María del Tura issued a statement to GWR, which said: “To celebrate this very special event, we will be holding a small celebration behind closed doors in the coming days at the residence.”
The title of the oldest person ever recorded belongs to Jeanne Louise Calment. Born February 21, 1875, according to the GWR, her life span was 122 years and 164 days.