Many people believed that boys should have more education than girls, so when hard times came for her family, and in the 1920's life was very hard . Jean Lumb went to work so that her older brother and younger brother could continue their studies. She was 12 years old. In 1935, when she was 16, Jean Lumb moved to Toronto to work with her sister. There were 2000 Chinese here, but only 12 or 13 families. When she was 17, she started her business, a fruit store on Bathurst Street, with a $200 loan; two years later she brought her family from B.C. to live in Toronto.

In 1939, she married her life-long partner, Doyle Jenning Lumb -- and promptly lost her citizenship . Jean and Doyle Lumb worked full time in the family business -- first the fruit store, Lumb's Florist, and then the Kwangchow Restaurant.