“Right after my husband died in 2006, Died by pancreatic cancer in six months, I was asked by three men but I never wanted to. It’s helping people in need that gets me up in the morning… and forgetting about my spine full of osteoarthritis. » Marie-Françoise Cramoysan, 80 years old and with impeccable blow-drying, waits all dapper on the steps of the town hall of Onzain (Loir-et-Cher), to take us to her home, at the wheel of her Citroën Picasso.
The interior of its white pavilion shines like a new penny. From the living room window, you can see the majestic castle of Chaumont-sur-Loire in the distance. Marie-Françoise Cramoysan wants to show off a trophy, placed on the oak chest of drawers, near the crossword books. It is a wrought iron statuette offered by volunteer friends for his commitment to the fight against cystic fibrosis. “For eight years, I put all my energy into finding donations for research. In Onzain, there were up to three hundred volunteers, with events bringing in up to 50,000 euros. Not bad for a town of 3,500 inhabitants! It was like running a business. »
She donated the sums collected to the Vaincre la cystic fibrosis association which, each year, raises funds during the Virades de l’Espoir. In 2022, Marie-Françoise Cramoysan was designated by the municipality as the “deserving widow” of Onzain.
“She passed on a tradition”
This prize of virtue, also called the “Lecoq legacy”, has been awarded every November by the municipality for seventy years. The sum – around 800 euros – corresponds to the annual rent of the 7 hectares of cereal land located in La Fosse Brûlée, a nearby place, bequeathed by a certain Marie Lecoq. “This bequest is made to the commune under the condition that the net income from the land is used to form a virtue prize which will be awarded each year to a deserving widow from the commune of Onzain”, can we read on the will dated 1949. It will come into force in July 1953, a year after the death of Marie Lecoq, née Butet.
Elected since 2014, Mayor Pierre Olaya, 76, admits to ignoring the origin of this idea: “It has already happened that sums of money have been bequeathed to us and that they have been used to finance new sidewalks or social works. Madame Lecoq, above all, passed on to us a tradition: that of celebrating a valiant widowed woman each year. I asked our association of historians, but we still don’t know what meritorious actions she carried out during her lifetime. »
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