How two entrepreneurs turned catastrophe into triumph

NUJU JUICE

NuJu Juice owners Eugene and Ayanna Williams endured a wreck that left Eugene partially paralyzed and the death of his father to keep the shop open. Their children, neighbors and church family were essential to keeping the business afloat.

Eugene and Ayanna Williams wouldn’t let circumstances hold them down.

The owners of NuJu Juice, a juice bar in Concord, recently celebrated the shop’s one-year anniversary, but it was far from easy. In March, Eugene was in a serious car wreck that left him partially paralyzed. 

“It was March 15 when Eugene had his accident,” Ayanna said. “He had actually left one Saturday morning on his way to the gym before work, when an oncoming car on a two-lane highway ran off the road and over-corrected. Eugene told me that he saw the car flip and when he saw it flipping, he came to a stop and the car flipped on top of him. It caused a spinal cord injury from the C3 to C6 area.”

As anyone might imagine, trying to run a business while also rehabilitating from an accident posed of challenges.

“After my accident I was rushed to the emergency room.” Eugene said. “And, this is just six months into us being opened, the juice bar that is. We had just opened in October of 2024, so we were new to the Concord area and just starting to get familiar with the community and everything. I am not able to do much and my wife is taking care of me, so she isn’t able to do much other than that, either.”

Eugene was in intensive care for 11 days followed by five weeks of rehab. 

“At the beginning of that phase, all I was focusing on was my recovery,” Eugene said. “Then, my pastor and first lady asked us, ‘What are you going to do with the cafe?’ I told them that at the time I hadn’t even thought about it. They stepped up and helped take over while I was recovering.”

The Williamses have six children: ages 22, 21, 17, 14, 11 and 8. Eugene said most of them know the operation processes, and with the guidance of pastor Ronnie Parson from Living Ministries Church in Charlotte, the cafe has remained open.

“My pastor told me that he was going to take care of it,” Eugene recalled. “They facilitated a schedule for volunteers from the church to come work at the cafe and make sure the doors stayed open. Then, when other friends and family started hearing that this was going on, they started helping out as well. Pretty much the whole community started to pitch in and help. We even had some loyal customers that pitched in to cover some shifts from time to time. From March 15 until now, we’ve truly been blessed. Ayanna was able to stay focused on helping me with my recovery and we’ve not had to shut down.”

To compound the turmoil, Eugene’s father was murdered five weeks prior to his accident. 

“My dad was killed during an armed robbery,” Eugene said. “He was at the car wash and was vacuuming out his car when some young boys approached him to rob him. They ended up shooting him and taking his life. My dad was an instrumental part of our family. He lived in South Carolina, but he would often come up and have dinner with us. He was my best friend. I talked with him every day. Then the accident happened and it was really tough.”

But, through their faith and support from their friends, family and other believers, the family has gotten through and is moving forward.

“We saw God bring us through this year of many tests, hard tests,” Ayanna said. “Some of the hardest in our lives. But we’ve also seen God bless us tremendously, He's brought us through this. He's healed. He's healed and continues to heal Eugene's body. He's worked a miracle in Eugene's process of recovery. And I said that to say this; we've seen him do too much. So, there is nothing that we believe that we can go through that God cannot bring us out of.”

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