The inhabitants of Vauvillers, a small town in the north of Haute-Saône, near the Vosges, still find it difficult to believe it. Huguette Pairon, their dean who died in July at the age of 97, gave them a posthumous surprise. The former nun, whom everyone believed to be penniless, was in fact sitting on pretty savings. She passed them on to her village, on condition that the money was used to finance the renovation and maintenance of the church where she prayed so much.
Huguette Pairon had made her arrangements just a few months before she passed away. In a will deposited in February with the notary of Vauvillers, she bequeathed all of her property to the town. The mayor of the village discovered, at the end of October, the exact amount of this unexpected windfall: 391,000 euros spread over life insurance and a current account “Well fed”, to which must be added a small house estimated at 30,000 euros. “It’s a little Christmas before the hour”, let go of the city councilor, Bruno Machard.
“Huguette Pairon was a very modest person, who did not incur expense or excess. »Bruno Machard, Mayor of Vauvillers
421,000 euros in total: that’s almost a year’s operating budget for the village of 680 inhabitants. No one in Vauvillers would have imagined Huguette Pairon at the head of such a capital. A few years ago, friends had even worried that his house was so poorly heated. They had inquired at the town hall: couldn’t we help this poor lady in need to pay her energy bills? To find out, social services had asked to see her accounts, but the person had refused.
There was nothing to suggest then that she had ample means to renovate her home from top to bottom. “Huguette Pairon was a very modest person, with a little retirement, who did not incur expense or excess”, confides the mayor. The former parish priest of the village, who knew the nonagenarian well, confirms this. “She showed no apparent signs of wealth, remembers Jean-Paul Guyot. It was simplicity, humility. ”
Small retirement, small expenses
“Everyone is amazed because she lived poorly, confirms a longtime friend. So much money, we didn’t expect it at all. Huguette, it was not the kind of woman who told her affairs. “
Like others in Vauvillers, this retiree was very caring for the dean of the village: “For the past few months, she hadn’t been able to cook herself, so we prepared her meals. He was always brought fruits and vegetables from the garden. My husband would help her when she had a clogged sink or a door that didn’t close properly. She wanted to give him a coin, but he never accepted. ” No regrets a posteriori: “We just wanted to help him”, smiles her friend. “If we had known she had the money, we would have done the same. ”
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