Virginia Pérez Buendía, the owner of a flour-making enterprise in Valverde de Júcar, a small town in the Cuenca province, bequeathed her fortune to her young townsfolk so they can complete their education, Spain’s English-language online paper The Local reports.
10 December 2014, 17:09 GMT
Buendía, who died childless at 86-years-old in her Madrid apartment, left her entire fortune to children from poor families with good school marks to give them a much-needed chance in life.
"It was a huge surprise", Pedro Esteso, mayor of Valverde de Júcar told Spanish daily ABC, of Buendía’s gift to the young people of the town.
A solitary and modest figure, Buendía started a foundation in her own name, to which she left the bulk of her vast inheritance. There are around a hundred students currently studying in Valverde de Júcar and some eighty more studying elsewhere in the country, and who exactly is going to qualify for a grant remains anyone’s guess.
