Arlene Hagans moved to Charlotte four years ago, looking to enjoy semi-retirement.

It didn’t work out that way.

Last September, her oldest daughter, Tiwanna “Ko-Ko”Hagans, died unexpectedly at age 37. She had suffered from a brain disorder that caused seizures.

Tiwanna (photo below) was owner of KoKoMo’s Coffeehouse in uptown Charlotte, just across from the county courthouse on Fourth Street. She also was a graduate of Johnson C. Smith University. At the time of her death, Tiwanna was working to open a second location on the campus of her beloved alma mater.

Now Arlene Hagans is running her daughter’s business.

She sat with Qcitymetro recently for a Q&A.

Hagans said much has happened since her daughter’s death: She closed the uptown store but went ahead with plans for the JCSU location, which opened in January.

Hagans said she sees divine providence in the way events unfolded. While working in the business to help out her daughter from time to time, she said, she had learned the operations from the ground up.

Below is a partial transcript of that interview. Some of Hagans’ answers were edited for brevity and clarity.
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Q. Ko-Ko loved JCSU. What is it like being here on campus?
It’s just like old times. I used to come up here all the time with her. I was the one who made the decision for her to go to school here. The people here have been really nice.

Q. What were you doing before you took over the business?
I had just graduated from ECPI College of Technology in Concord. I was in a 13-month medical administration program. I had just graduated in September, and I was getting ready to go out on job interviews. I had just finished when my daughter passed away. So I went out on one interview.

Q. How is business?
Business is pretty good. We opened in January. We were able to get everything up and running by the time the kids came back from their winter break. Of course things are slower now because the kids out of school, but it’s been pretty good.

Q. Tell me about the decision to close the uptown shop.
After Tiwanna passed away, I had people come up to me saying ‘Ma, you’ve got to keep it open. Ko-Ko wouldn’t want you to close the shop.’ But I really wasn’t feeling the shop, or anything else, because I was still in shock about her passing. So I really didn’t know what to do. I was getting offers from people wanting to buy it. But while going over her papers and books, we found out she was going to sell it. She had it listed. She really wasn’t making that much money in the downtown location. I think she was just going to make the JCSU location her baby. After I realized that, it wasn’t a hard decision for me.

Q. So what happened to the potential buyers?
People who were interested in buying it, once they realized what the lease was, they kinda backed down.

Q. So how has it been, personally working here?
For me it’s kinda like therapy, because I know this is what she wanted. To me it’s like it was God’s plan. That’s the way I see it. By working in the shop before and learning all the basics, I had done everything from buying products, hiring to training. It gives me great pride when people come in and look at it – people who know her – and they’re like, ‘Oh, Ma, this is how she would have wanted it. You’ve got it down to the tee.’ So it helps me out a lot.

Q. Do many of her friends come by?
Oh, yeah. All the time. Alumni, people she went to school with. They come by all the time.

Q. What do you think the shop means to the campus?
The kids love it. The staff; I think they love it as much as the kids. It makes you feel good to know that it’s something that people appreciate. They make it seem so special. Students come in and play checkers and chess. They do poetry readings. They have meetings over here. Teachers come in and have small classes here. Now we’re getting ready to partner with two young ladies from a local church to have a Saturday afternoon Bible study in the shop.

Q. What’s been the hardest part of running the business?
Trying to live up to her expectations of how she would want it to be. A lot of things she would tell me she wanted done this way or that way. Now I can see it, because I do the same thing. She trained me. She was like a very hard taskmaster. If she trained you, she was going to make sure you knew everything.

Q. Did Tiwanna know how sick she was?
She never let on to us how sick she was. It took us a long time to get her to go to the doctor. And when she did, she would never really come out and tell us much. Her father finally pinned her down and took her. After she had the surgery we were thinking everything was going to be ok. But we didn’t know she had stopped taking her medicine. And then she had a seizure. When we found out she had stopped taking it we got her back to the doctor and got her back on track. I thought she was doing well.

Q. What did they discover after her death?
Complications due to seizure. I was the one who found her. She used to keep a lot of pillows on her bed. The medical examiner said that, when she went into a seizure, it would have been hard for her to turn her head to get air.

Q. What was your relationship like?
Mom and daughter. She always respected my opinion about different things. She always wanted me to meet all her friends. She brought all her friends by. She wanted me to cook for them. We talked like every other day. She was the oldest, and at times I’d ask her opinion about stuff. I think in the end she felt like she was my mom and could tell me what to do, and I was supposed to do it. She directed me in a whole lot of things that turned out well.

Q. I see you kept her traditional greeting when customers walk though the door – Welcome to KoKoMo’s.
Oh, yeah. That has to be. I don’t want to get whiplash from heaven. (laughter) That was her thing.

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