Jean Lumb was born in Nanaimo, B.C., in1919. Her grandfather came to build the railroad ;her father was a coal miner and later becamea merchant.

When her father came the head tax was only $50.Then it got higher and higher. Still, he said, "there'shope here."

Her mother raised 12 children. When she was little she used to visit theother coal-miners with her father and she remembers how lonely the men were.

Jean Lumb went to a segregated school in Nanaimo.She grew up not understanding why Chinese people were not accepted. At thisyoung age she already knew that she didn't want to be outside looking in.