When a tornado tore through Mayfield last December 10, the world turned upside down for Jana Duffy, owner of the unique downtown boutique Anaj. Taking no time for self-pity, Duffy faced the loss of her business with unflinching candor and compassion for others.
In a Facebook post the day after the tragedy, she announced, “Anaj is NOT salvageable. People have lost their homes, lives. Pray for our city.”
No stranger to dealing with the daunting, Jana had helped her parents’ auto parts business recover after it sustained damage in a tornado that swept through Mayfield in 2016. She knew what it was like to clear the rubble, sort through the shards of the leftovers and begin anew.
Duffy purchased the building that housed Anaj in October 2018. With a strategic vision of what she wanted to create in a building that dated back to 1887, she rolled up her sleeves, applied her unrelenting capacity for hard work, and transformed the space.
With pride, she recalled how the public reacted to Anaj – her name spelled backward: “People would walk in and tell me how beautiful everything was and how it didn’t look like a store that should be in a small town.”
She paused before continuing.
“…It was gone in an instant. But oftentimes, the universe takes things away from us to replace it with something better…I had accomplished exactly what I had set out to do and I know better things are coming for us all.”
In the aftermath of the tornado, Duffy — accustomed to working two jobs — added to her hours at a local spa. In May, she expanded her workday by going back to Dillards in Paducah. The regular paycheck helped her provide for herself and her two teens, aged 17 and 13, while also giving her time to ponder the future.
Her no-frills-or-fuss approach to planning is expressed succinctly in her Facebook post: “Never beg for anything. Create a plan. Work hard. Get it yourself.”
Along those lines, Duffy recently revealed that she is close to opening her own business again. “It’s not clothing or retail,” she said. “It’s an idea I had even before the tornado.”
She hopes people will walk into the space and feel transported, similar to the impact of Anaj. “I want people to feel beautiful and powerful, to discover their divine energy.”
“I’m a small-town girl with a dream,” she concluded.
Although the new enterprise follows a different direction than Anaj, Duffy is using the knowledge and insights gained from that business to her new start-up. “This idea is coat-tailed off Anaj,” she explained. “It’s very much about empowering women.”
While she still owns the land where Anaj once stood, the tract has been red-lined by the city for now, so her venture will open in another location downtown.
The school of hard knocks was a good teacher and Duffy was a quick study. Because of her expertise and attention to detail, Anaj survived two years of Covid.
“I still own the property,” she said, adding that the Mayfield Rebuild Committee is working on a plan for the once bustling part of town.
Describing the state of her new venture, she declared, “It just all has fallen into place. I’ve learned what I need to do and what I don’t need to do.”
At 5 foot 3 inches, Jana Duffy is petite, even in the high heels she always wears. “I deal with things. I’m pretty tough,” she asserted.
When she is ready to announce, which she says will be “soon,” Duffy is likely to move forward with her usual confidence and grit. “I’m hoping it will be in late February or March and I intend to just keep going from there. That’s my motto for life,” she concluded.