TROY, N.H. — A rural New Hampshire town has been left a sizable gift by a 90-year-old woman who lived there in the 1960s – an amount equal to about half its yearly overall budget.

Betty Giorgianni died in April and left more than $820,000 to the town of Troy, population 2,000.

Tom Matson, chairman of the town board of selectmen, told New Hampshire Public Radio that after Giorgianni’s funeral, the family stopped by the selectmen’s office to “let us know that Betty had remembered the town in the will with a fairly large gift.”

He said, “We were certainly surprised when it came in to be so large.”

Matson said some of the money will probably go toward helping pay for children’s programming and activities.

Some will also be put into savings for renovations to town buildings, including the Town Hall.

“Everyone’s very surprised, pleased and grateful,” he said. “The selectmen have been meeting with department heads and committee chairmen and will continue to do so to figure out the best plan for how to invest the money and how to best use it.”

Matson said financing schools in the state is challenging, and the money will give the town some flexibility to work on some projects “that will really make a difference.”

He said voters will eventually decide how to use it.