Lydia Jack says she will be back!

Lydia Jack of Layou began earning a living from a snack tray, and with hard work progressed to a trolley, which she towed around plying her trade. With her ambition and dedication, Jack eventually opened a shop at Texier Road in a wooden structure next to her 71-year old relative, Thomas Jack.

The well stocked business place had dry goods, drinks, canned products, clothing, shoes, toiletries, a big deep freeze worth $4,000 filled with poultry, meat among other things.{{more}}

But on Monday February 12, at 3:30 am, Jack’s business went up in smoke.

The 46-year-old learnt that the home of her 71-year old relative caught a fire and eventually spread to her shop next door. She said fortunately, her elderly relative who lived alone was not injured, and was able to remove several items from his home. She however felt disappointed that her relative did not alert other people in the neighbourhood about the fire.

“I just feel people around could have do something to help if he did call out. He got out his stove and gas bottle and other things and if we did only know we would have get some things out,” she lamented.

Her voice broke as she confessed that it hurt her to see her business in which she invested some $40,000 to stock disappear before her eyes. Jack said that it most grieved her to know that her customers, especially those who would credit because they did not have money no longer have a place to go to shop.

A woman of faith, who would only play gospel music in her shop, Jack said that she would start again with her snack tray just as she did back in 2001 and work her way up again.

“So many people have been giving me support and I would rise again. God is my strength and who God bless no man curse,

I am alive, I am grateful and life goes on,” she said.