No words adequately describe what daddy, granddad, Mr. Valmont, the Honourable Arnott Francois Valmont, meant to us, the Valmont family, the people he employed and the broader Saint Lucian community. But here’s my attempt at sharing with you a story of a life well lived. A story of achievement against all odds, a love story, a story of wins and losses, a story of family, of charity without recognition and civic responsibility.
In conversation, my grandfather was a man of few words, but he conveyed a wealth of wisdom when he spoke. There were even more lessons in the way he lived, with the values of discipline, hard work and financial ingenuity being his guiding principles. A man of strength, who to his family was a protector, a provider and a disciplinarian who wouldn’t hesitate to let down his guard for the enjoyment of his children. In business, he was firm but fair, an effective negotiator and a visionary. With his wife Olive at his side every step of the way, the world was his oyster.
Hailing from Vieux Fort, my grandfather was the fourth of ten children. The seeds of entrepreneurship were sown in him from a young age, emulating his father who owned and managed a sizable estate. At the tender age of fourteen he moved to Castries to live with his cousin, J.Q. Charles, where his knack for business was further developed. Upon the completion of his secondary school education, he studied agriculture, as his father hoped he would return to Vieux Fort to work on the estate. Life had other plans, he met and was immediately enamoured, by the elegant Olive Edwards, Mrs. Valmont, my grandmother. A strapping, handsome, lad, with a great sense of humor, my grandfather, used his charm to win her over and after much resistance from both their families they eloped. The beginnings of a dynamic duo, a power couple, the joining of two enterprising families.
Anxious to provide for his newfound family, my grandfather rode his bicycle to Vieux Fort, for an interview, after getting word of an open timekeeper position on the American Base. His family was quickly expanding, as he once told me, “when Olive and I started having children, it’s like we never stopped, it was just one after the other”. At this point, his family had grown to four with the additions of my aunt Myrna who died as an infant and my dear Aunty Ann. During this period, his father had also fallen ill and passed away and he was now responsible for caring for his mother and younger siblings.
When World War II had ended, the American Base was closed, and St. Lucia was still recovering from the lingering effects of the Great Depression. My grandfather and his contemporaries, John Compton, George Mallet among others, emigrated to Curacao to work at the oil refinery. His young family continued to grow as Aunty Lorraine was born, and Aunty Ingrid came shortly after, conceived on his visits back to St. Lucia. My grandmother Olive and her mother Mary De Barnard had already established a strong foothold as retailers in Castries. Upon his return from Curacao, he started a night club, for which he provided some of the entertainment, being an avid musician. The success of the nightclub was short lived, as Castries was soon devastated by the 1948 fire, taking along with it, his dream of being a night club owner.
My great grandmother’s retail business, Balboa Edwards, was expanding rapidly and needed help, as my grandmother’s siblings had chosen other professions. My grandfather made the plunge, assisting where he was needed, starting with the construction of the buildings after the fire. He became their customs clearance clerk and helped with the general management of the store for a few years. Jennifer Nelson, my mother, was born during this period. With that retail experience under his belt, he gave birth to A.F. Valmont & Co. and the sons he always desired, Bradley Valmont and Earl Lyttleton Valmont affectionately known as Pong.
Building their newly formed company and raising their family of six became their primary focus. With mischief running rampant at home, he kept everyone in line with a firm hand, stories that are the butt of many family jokes. Being a strong swimmer, he insisted that every island person should be a swimmer as well and took great care in teaching all his children to swim, sometimes employing methods that in today’s world would be questionable. He was a nature lover, excited to show the island’s gems to his children, Sunday drives were a regular occurrence. When they were of age, he taught them to drive, as he accepted no excuses for his children returning home late.
Their family and business continued to grow as they expanded into new departments and Aunty Althea, the last of their children was born. He also took on new social endeavours as he was a founding member of the St. Lucia Yacht Club, the Rotary Club, the La Clery Club and Stevedores Association. He was also an active member of the Castries Club and the St. Lucia Chamber of Commerce, where he served as President with distinction for two terms. He also recognised that there was a market for certain foreign products on the island and ceased the opportunity by acquiring several agencies, Yamha, Ace Hardware and Reckitt and Coleman to name a few. He dabbled in other ventures as well, from pig farming to real estate speculation and even owning a gas station. The acquisitions of Winward Island Gases, Atwell Dalgliesh and Marisule Chemicals were also some of his successes.
His kids were now grown and had gone off to school abroad, education being of the utmost importance to himself and my grandmother. Upon their return, we his grandchildren, started coming along. As a grandfather, he took great interest in our well-being and was extremely happy when we visited. Growing up, he would encourage us to spend our summer and Christmas vacations working in the store, of course at minimum wage. It was a pleasure seeing that warm smile, when he saw us hard at work. There were certain phrases he would say when he ran into his grandchildren, that we are all familiar with like “I want A’s, A’s A’s” or “you looking good when can I get a loan” or if a few weeks had gone by and he hadn’t seen or heard from you he would say “I haven’t seen you in a while, you fire me?” and sometimes you would get the question ”so tell me, what have you achieved today?”. I remember on my visits to his house as a kid, with my twin brother, he would teach us many life lessons, like “you must never sell an asset to buy something that will not make you money”. There was one time he had difficulty reaching someone to do a repair at the house on a Sunday. When he finally reached that someone and they arrived at the house, he told me, “look at that man’s fancy car he’s only able to afford it because he shows up to work on a Sunday.” He would often say, “every time I open the paper there’s an ad for an accountant and often talked about the importance of the profession, having taken some accounting courses himself. As a result, quite a few of his grandchildren became accountants including myself. He was a generous man. He would say, “every day I go to town with cash in my pocket and by the time I get back home my pocket is empty, this one need this and the other needs that”, deeds that would often go unrecognised. These lessons have stuck with us throughout our lives.
In this story, there is a message for all of us, that dreams can be achieved, with perseverance, discipline and hard work. My grandfather often told me when I was young that he never thought of himself as the smartest, but always knew he could outwork the more talented. He was a fighter and fought until the end, living to the grand age of 104, eventually succumbing, as the death of his daughter Ann, his home companion of 82 years weighed heavily on his heart. Granddad, you can stop fighting now, as your memory will live on in our hearts forever.