Lloyd Anthony Foster is no ordinary Jamaican.

He is one of the world’s top actuarial scientists, running his own insurance consultancy company in New Jersey USA. When he was a young Ardenne High School boy back in Jamaica, Lloyd had an encounter with a total stranger whose act of kindness changed him and the course of his life forever. For close to half a century Lloyd Foster has been searching to find this person to thank her in a practical way.

Read Lloyd Foster’s story in his own words:

In August 1970, my book list came from Ardenne for me to go to third form. By all indications, the total cost would be around J$25.00. My mother called me into a corner, gave me $10.00, explained this was all she could afford, and warned me (three times) to buy the English and Math books first, then try to fit everything else in the best way I could. I said, “Yes Ma’am”; and left.

I went through the gate and resolved to buy the Physics and Chemistry books first. I took the JOS bus to Parade. Normally, I would go straight to the SPCK Bookshop at the top of King Street (now Kingston Bookshop). That day, for the first time ever, I went straight to the bookshop in Times Store. I don’t know why I did that.

A young attendant in her late teens or early 20s greeted me at the door and took the book list and the money from me, trying to get the maximum number of books for what I had.  This was standard practice. But no matter what she did, she could not fit enough of a $25 book-list into $10. And the fact that I was first in class since my arrival at Ardenne each year didn’t matter. Mother had six of us and my dad was an absent dead-beat father who offered no support.

Suddenly the attendant in Times Store exclaimed: “You know something, I am going to pay for all the books for you.” And she proceeded to do just that. I told her “Thank you” a dozen times and I was the happiest young man on the homeward bus that day. I never asked her name. I never went back to see her. Then one day years later, coming back to work from lunch while working at Mutual Life at Oxford Road, I saw a young girl, a stranger, leaning against a wall nearby, crying. It broke my heart. I asked her what was the matter and she explained that her mother could not afford to pay for her books and she did not know what to do. I went to Sangster’s Bookstore in a Half-Way Tree mall with her and paid for every book on her list.

‘I wish I could find this young lady again’

On coming back to work, my supervisor at the time, Joy Brown, and her boss, Earle Robinson, were not pleased with me coming back from lunch so late. I did not want to tell them what I had just done.  It would sound too corny. So I just apologized. But now I started thinking about that young lady back in 1970 who had paid for my third form books. What sacrifices did she make to do this?  Was she alright? Did she have children? Were her children able to pay for their books? I wanted to find her, but it made no sense trying. Times Store had long since closed down. For 10 years it bothered me that I could not find this abundantly kind lady to do something financially beneficial for her. 

Then one day I revisited Ardenne and told Mr. Roy Ebanks, the principal at the time, about my difficulty rewarding someone who had been so good to me. He explained to me that it did not work like that.  I needed to find some child and pay for that child’s books. That child would grow up and pay for another child’s books, and so on. I did not have the heart to let him know that I had already done that many times and that it did not give me the satisfaction I wanted. So I agreed politely and let the conversation drop.

But I keep thinking about this angel who did this act of kindness 48 years ago, and it still lives with me. She would not have known that my mom died shortly after when a car knocked her down, and she would not have known that my dad abandoned his six children immediately after, so as the eldest, I happily and miraculously raised myself, and five brothers and sisters. I wish I could find this young lady again. She was welcoming, slim, medium height, dark skinned, with an afro; and she had a narrow face. If anyone knows who this Times Store angel may be, I’d be the happiest man to know.

Lloyd Foster was a member of the first Ardenne’s Schools’ Challenge Quiz team which won the competition in 1973. He went on to gain a Master of Science degree in Computational Finance from Carnegie Mellon University and is a fellow of the Society of Actuaries in the US. His firm Foster Colley LLC provides pricing valuations and risk models for some of the largest Fortune 500 insurance and banking institutions in the USA.

Did You Know?

• In the 1970’s Times Store located at 8 King Street was one of the few buildings that had an escalator?
• Its motto was “Times Store :The Finest Store in Town”
• Each year it hosted an in-house Santa Claus whose dramatic arrival just before Christmas, was eagerly awaited by children and adults alike.