Surviving domestic violence helped an Atlanta mother find purpose
Nichelle Wilson was holding her 2-month-old daughter when her ex-husband slammed her head into a wall in 2016. The impact cracked the drywall, injured Wilson’s left knee and left the baby with a fractured skull.
Wilson was frantic to find help, knocking on neighbors’ doors, calling 911 and finally reaching her mom.
Doctors told Wilson her daughter’s age likely saved her life. Because Hannah Marie’s skull was not fully formed yet, she survived injuries that could have been fatal for an older child.
This was not the first she suffered abuse from her husband.
“I didn’t make a change until my ex-husband abused my daughter,” Wilson said. “That’s when it was a no-go for me.”
Wilson said police questioned her after her ex-husband contacted his attorney to report the incident. Since he and the attorney were close friends, she said, that made it easy for the incident to seem like an accident and report Wilson as an unfit parent.
That experience eventually became the foundation of her life’s work.
Now, she owns Happy Mama Happy Mini, a successful nonprofit that offers support to those facing or escaping domestic violence through financial resource assistance, fee-based therapy, attorney services, a therapist referral network and more.
“There’s so many people that hide behind the reality of scenarios,” she said. “That’s what it is for me, being a voice for the voiceless.”
Wilson grew up in a close-knit military family rooted in New Orleans. Her parents were high school sweethearts and after she was born, her father dropped out of college to join the military and support his family.
Wilson said she’d never been around abuse. Coming from a loving and supportive family, she said, made it harder to recognize some of the signs.
Her story is much like many others.
In a 2024 women’s health survey from KFF, formerly the Kaiser Family Foundation, data showed more than 20% of Black women in America had experienced some degree of intimate partner violence in the previous five years.
Some of that violence occurs and intensifies during pregnancy and the year after. One of the leading causes of death during pregnancy and first year after childbirth in the United States is homicide, according to a 2025 study published by JAMA Network Open.
Tamika Summers, a Georgia licensed marriage and family therapist and former 911 operator, said fighting within the home — whether between adults or children — is treated as one of the most dangerous calls by police departments.
She said one of the biggest misconceptions about domestic and intimate partner violence is that people assume abuse is always physical.
Summers, who has been providing services in the metro Atlanta area since 2009, said sometimes people present a rose-colored version of their situation and the abuse comes as a surprise to the rest of the world. “It couldn’t be that they were having problems,” she said.
She shared that more often than not when she’s seeing someone for therapy, once they escape their abuser, they don’t come back because they have the encouragement they need to pursue life after leaving.
Wilson said that therapy helped her decide to leave The Woodlands, Texas, a city just 28 miles north of downtown Houston, in 2016.
She left for Atlanta, where she had started attending Clark Atlanta in 2000. The move was not only for herself, but for Hannah Marie and to start her nonprofit organization full time.
Ten-year-old Hannah Marie is now a golfer, artist, bracelet entrepreneur and aspiring video game designer.
“I recently went to a camp where we were able to code a drone, and I went to another where we were able to make our own game,” she said.
Hannah Marie attends Atlanta International School where she also enjoys learning new languages.
“I’m really good at Chinese,” she said.
Wilson’s recovery wasn’t defined only by leaving her abuser. It was also shaped by the people who helped her rebuild.
One of those people was Anita Handshaw, a fellow member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority, whose friendship left a lasting impact on both Wilson and her daughter.
After leaving her abusive marriage, Wilson met Handshaw who said she felt compelled to meet Wilson and her baby.
“She (Handshaw) could just tell something was not right with me,” Wilson said. “She didn’t know what was going on with me, But she said ‘I want to lay eyes on you. I need to see you. I need to meet this baby.’”
Wilson, her mom, Hannah Marie and Handshaw met at The Woodlands Golf Course in Texas, which was near where she lived at the time.
Wilson said as Hannah Marie got older, Handshaw would come visit them in Atlanta and take her to Topgolf, invite them on staycations and take them to get massages.
“She was an amazing human being,” Wilson said.
Handshaw died during the COVID pandemic in 2021 but had sent Wilson a handwritten birthday card two days prior.
Following that, Handshaw’s daughter reached out to Wilson to give her mother’s golf clubs to then 5-year-old Hannah Marie.
“Nichelle please don’t ever forget my mom,” Handshaw’s daughter said. “She really loved you and your daughter.”
And Wilson kept her promise.
On Monday, she and Hannah Marie hosted their fifth annual Hannah Marie Golf Classic, a fundraiser for Happy Mama Happy Mini featuring golf, music, food and community.
Every year at the classic, they honor Handshaw along with others that have supported the Wilson family’s journey.
Happy Mama Happy Mini also awards scholarships to HBCU students who embody the values Handshaw represented and the impact she had on Wilson’s family.
“I’m just grateful to have had her in my life at the time,” she said.
Hannah Marie got into private golf lessons at Bobby Jones Golf Course with her instructor, Daniel Fowler, two years ago and he said watching her grow has been amazing.
“Even though it’s only been a couple of years, she has really come out of her shell,” Fowler said. “I am very blessed to have her and her mom in my life and to work with them.”
For Wilson, the journey from survivor to advocate has become her life’s purpose.
“Everything happens for a reason, and now I can be a voice for the voiceless,” she said. “And not be afraid to talk about what (domestic violence) looks like.”