Longevity!

August 24th, 2024| Topic: RaMbLeS | 2

Maria Branyas Morera, an American-born Catalan lady, died in her sleep last week. She was 117 years and 168 days old (4 March 1907–19 August 2024), the oldest living person after the death of the almost-119 year-old Lucile Randon in January 2023, and the eighth oldest person in history (according the Guinness World Records). The next in line is Tomiko Itooka, of Osaka, who is 116+.

Ms. Branyas Morera was a “supercentenarian,” one who lives beyond 110 years, an accomplishment of only 1 in 1,000 centenarians, and most of them, like our heroine, with no major health issues other than those related to hearing and mobility. She lived through two World Wars, the Spanish Civil War, the Great Depression, and even two pandemics—the 1918 flu and the recent coronavirus one (and yes, she contracted Covid-19 in 2020 when she was 113 but made a swift recovery after suffering mild symptoms).

In spring 2023, cancer expert Manel Esteller contacted Branyas’ nursing home and asked to speak to her. “What do you expect from life?” Esteller asked the old woman. “Death,” replied Señora Branyas.

In fact, she recently said:

Death is like that old friend you know will drop by anytime. I’ve been ready for a while now, and I think he might come knocking soon. I just want to have the serenity to handle whatever comes my way and enough happiness to savor the good stuff. I’ll never turn bitter, no matter what life throws at me.”

When she turned 117 earlier this March, she celebrated with a cake and credited “staying away from toxic people” among the reasons she had managed to live so long.

She has something there. Research has shown that that relationships affect death risk. This one, “Relationship Quality and 5-Year Mortality Risk,” published in 2020 in Health Pscyhology, concluded:

Negative relationship quality … heightens older adults’ risk of mortality.”

Said one who commented on Ms. Branyas Morera’s revelation:

Avoid toxic people: with my current boss, I’m losing years of my life.”

Yet another explained this avoidance of toxic humans this way:

She never used the internet.”

And one confessed:

Dang. Now nobody’s going to want to talk to me.”

Yup, we’re all toxic.

Another:

Apparently she couldn’t avoid them forever.”

And, yes, one day or another, our own toxicities will catch up with us.

But if we hang with the source of life, God, the only non-toxic One, there is hope.

Yahweh is my light and my deliverance—
whom shall I fear?
Yahweh is the stronghold of my life—
whom shall I dread?
When evildoers came upon me
to devour my flesh,
my adversaries and my enemies against me—
they—they stumbled and they fell.
If an army camp encamp against me,
my heart will not fear;
though war rise against me,
[even] in this I am trustful.
One thing I have asked from Yahweh—
that I shall seek:
for me to dwell in the house of Yahweh
all the days of my life,
to behold the beauty of Yahweh,
and to contemplate in His temple.
For He will conceal me in His shelter in the day of evil;
He will hide me in the hiding place of His tent;
on a rock He will lift me high.
And now my head will be lifted high
above my enemies all around me,
And I will sacrifice in His tent sacrifices with shouts of joy;
I will sing and I will make music to Yahweh.
Psalm 27:1–6

Live long … and forever, with God!

SOURCE: Washington Post; Health Psychology