OCHO RIOS, St Ann — Sunrise has barely coloured the sky when 38-year-old Anna-Kay Boswell Johnson is already in motion, prepping school uniforms, reviewing orders for her family’s hardware store and confirming bookings for the two-bedroom Airbnb she manages in Buckfield.
The mother of three moves through each task with military precision, but Jamaica’s rising cost of living often leaves even her tightest budgets gasping for air. So when a routine restock run to Rexo Supermarket turned into a $50,000 Smirnoff “We Do Carnival” shopping spree, Boswell Johnson could only laugh at the timing.
“I’d stepped out of the line to sort out a phone plan,” she recalled. “The call came in and the rep said I’d won. I thought, ‘This must be a prank.’ But when I realised it was real, my first thought was, ‘Great—this covers chicken for a while!’”
Boswell Johnson’s day typically starts at 5:00 am. Two teenagers attend different schools; her youngest needs a midday pickup. Between drop-offs she opens the hardware, reconciles invoices, then dashes to spruce up her short-term rental before the next guest checks in. “Some evenings the stress feels heavier than concrete,” she admitted. “But quitting isn’t on the table; the kids are watching.”
The unexpected windfall delivered more than groceries— it offered psychological space. Weekly supermarket trips often run $30,000-$40,000, outpacing wages before the month even begins. “You earn, you plan, and the math still says ‘minus’,” she said with a wry smile.
Boswell Johnson entered the promotion on a whim, scanning her receipt at the in-store kiosk. It was the first contest she’d ever bothered with. “I’m usually too busy to fill out anything,” she joked. “Maybe I should try my luck more often.”
Beyond her own relief, she hopes the story nudges other stretched-thin parents to keep grinding. “If you’re juggling three, four roles, remember why you started,” she said. “Pressure feels permanent, but moments like this prove good surprises still exist. Just don’t tap out.”
With cupboards topped up and a bit of breathing room in her budget, Boswell Johnson is already plotting her next 5:00 am start— only now, that alarm might sound a little less daunting.
