Lisa Floster and Ryan head to the corner to meet Jody’s truck. (Shellie Leger)

Lisa Floster and her husband, Jack, have owned the General Store in West Paris since 2003. Floster had run a successful pub in Portland and Jack could fix anything. They thought a family-run business would offer them and the five children they share between them financial security and independence, but they soon realized they needed to do some creative problem-solving to stay afloat. In that vein, Floster decided to give foster children a place to stay at the General Store. She continues to soldier on at the corner of Church and Main in West Paris with faith and tenacity.

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I’ve always listened to what my heart tells me, and I believe that all things are possible through God. I love children. When I married Jack, his son was 7 and my daughter was 6. They’re 21 and 22 now. I adopted Jack’s son.

When the General Store came up for sale, we bought it, and then we got pregnant with our son, George, who’s 12. He just won the school-wide geography bee for the third time. He’s going to the statewide competition.

When the recession hit in the early 2000s, Associated Grocers of Maine went out of business. A lot of us had money wrapped up in them. Boom. Just like that. It created a serious financial hardship.

We turned the store more into a restaurant business. We did breakfasts and lunches to get the place to survive and phased the groceries out. It still wasn’t supporting itself, so we started going to auctions, and estate sales, and buying out storage units. We brought some of these pieces into the back of the store. We also sold clothes, electronics, and some antiques. I really liked it. It was fun.

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We leased the store to a family who wanted to give it a try and rented a space at the Save-A-Lot mall for our new venture. We called it Rock Bottom, and it did pretty well, but in about a year the other family couldn’t handle the General Store so it came back to us.

We couldn’t manage both, so we closed Rock Bottom and turned the store into a small café with a busy take-out business, and a few groceries. We moved as much of the stuff from Rock Bottom as we could into the back of the store for auctions.

That was our plan, but auctions are extremely difficult to run. There are so many ups and downs in the auction world. It’s really physical work, and it’s not a constant source of income. Jack got a job driving a trailer truck, and I opened a pub. I thought if I offered live music, an open mic night, karaoke, and maybe a license to serve beer and wine, it would take off.

A few of us wrote up a proposal and went to the town office for a hearing. The town gave me the permit, and a bunch of us got together and decorated. When the liquor inspector came, she ended up licensing the whole building, so we had space to work with. I got some pool tables, a Foosball table, and a dart board. I had a separate room for cards and board games, and we had bookshelves full of books.

Within a week or so, the place was set up as a music venue that served beer, wine, pizza and sandwiches. We had musicians lined up and ready. Open mic nights were really popular. We used the old Rock Bottom sign so the pub was called Rock Bottom. It was rockin’.

Here’s the thing, though: I opened up at 6 a.m. for the breakfast crowd; did lunch, too; and then was here ’til 11 or 12 at night. I was working all the time. Then, my friend and helper got very sick and couldn’t work. She died. No one wanted me to close, but I just couldn’t keep it up.

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In the meantime, we owned two houses in the village. We lived in one and the other was a rental. Now we had a store that was closing. We decided to live in the store because there were so many rental opportunities where our houses were.

I’d always wanted to do something for children. I’d thought about being a foster mom. The store already had three bathrooms in it. I thought it was the perfect place for kids. We disposed of the two houses in the village and moved in. We now have seven bedrooms, a big playroom, a mini-gym, and a safe yard.

I applied to be a foster mom and took all the classes. I was willing to take children with medical issues. I have six children here now, and one of my own, so actually seven. The first two came together. I have sole guardianship of those two boys. They’re not in the custody of the state anymore. I didn’t see that coming, but I’m thrilled.

The youngest of those two, Ryan, had a stroke in utero. When he came to me a little over a year ago, he was tube fed and in a wheelchair. He had only two words and wasn’t potty-trained. Now he feeds himself, walks, uses the toilet and talks. He’s going to our local Agnes Gray School instead of the Margaret Murphy School in Lewiston. That’s a special needs school.

He loves his flag collection and big trucks. A guy named Jody drives a truck that picks up mail from the post office. Every day at the same time, Ryan stands on a corner with his flag waiting for Jody to drive by. When he does, he toots his horn for Ryan.

After those two kids, I took in another a few months later, and then a brother and sister pair came a few months after that. Just before Christmas my last one came, which made seven. It’s very satisfying watching them all grow into great kids with bright futures.


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