Coming October 1, 2026
Pastor Nicole Washington's Birthday
I'm Still Here
The Extraordinary Journey of Pastor Nicole Washington
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I'M STILL HERE
The Extraordinary Journey of Pastor Nicole Washington
By Pastor Nicole Washington
This is not simply a memoir.
This is a four-generation American saga — from a plantation back porch in the Deep South to a dialysis chair in Peachtree Corners, Georgia.
It runs through the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. Through Spelman College and Howard University. Through a country woman in Hueytown, Alabama who taught a broken girl how to shell peas and pray. Through a federal judge, a concert pianist, a science classroom with six people, and a woman who faced death ten times in one year and responded by writing books.
This is the story of Pastor Nicole Washington.
And if you are still here — it is part of your story too.
The Opening Declaration
My family's story does not begin with me.
It begins on a plantation back porch, where a little girl slept in hay with a dog because she belonged to neither world — not the slave quarters, not the big house.
From that back porch, my family has lived through:
Slavery.
Emancipation.
Reconstruction.
Jim Crow.
The Civil Rights Movement.
And the modern era.
My grandfather ran toward the wounded at the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing.
My grandmother graduated Spelman College with honors.
My mother entered Spelman at fourteen years old.
And I am sitting in a dialysis chair in Peachtree Corners, Georgia — still building, still declaring, still here.
Four generations. One unbroken line.
From a back porch to a publishing house.
The wound did not win.
SIX GENERATIONS
One Unbroken Line Through American History
At least six confirmed generations of this family have lived, survived, and built on American soil. Their story spans every major chapter of this nation's history.
The Enslaved Woman
Possibly first or second generation on American soil. Her name has not yet been confirmed. She is the beginning of this story.
Era: Slavery
The Great-Great-Grandmother
Her daughter. The product of rape by the plantation owner. Not permitted to live in the slave quarters. Not permitted in the house. She slept on the back porch with the dog in a bed of hay. She was made to serve the white woman's children — her own half-siblings. She existed between two worlds and belonged to neither.
Era: Emancipation and Reconstruction
Mama Fanny — Sandy Perdue
Her daughter. The family line continues. Faith takes root.
Era: Reconstruction and Jim Crow
Blanche — Ada Blanche Perdue Mitchell
Spelman College graduate with honors. Wife of Dr. Aldis Samuel Mitchell — the physician who ran toward the wounded at the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. She gave her granddaughter Psalm 23 as a lifeline. She prayed like she was talking to someone who was actually listening. She was.
Era: Jim Crow and the Civil Rights Movement
Gwen — Gwendolyn Estelle Mitchell‑Wright Darden
Entered Spelman College at fourteen years old. University of Chicago concert pianist. Founder of Just Friends — an Atlanta organization that celebrated its 40th anniversary. A woman of extraordinary gifts, extraordinary accomplishment, and a complicated relationship with her daughter that shaped everything that came after.
Era: The Civil Rights Movement and the Modern Era
Pastor Nicole Washington
Born October 1, 1961 in Birmingham, Alabama. Pastor. Teacher. Author. Speaker. Patient Advocate. Caregiver. Founder. Survivor. Still here.
Era: The Modern Era
From a plantation back porch to a dialysis chair in Peachtree Corners, Georgia.
This is what six generations of survival looks like.
"My grandfather ran toward the wounded at the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. I build from a dialysis chair in Georgia. Different chairs. Same assignment."
— Pastor Nicole Washington
A GLIMPSE INSIDE
Thirty-eight chapters. Six parts. One extraordinary journey.
PART ONE — THE FAMILY I WAS BORN INTO
The plantation back porch. The physician who walked to Morehouse with sackcloth on his feet — and ran toward the wounded when the bomb exploded at the 16th Street Baptist Church. The grandmother who gave a little girl Psalm 23 as a lifeline. The parties everybody else remembers. The telephone that never rang for her. The year her mother stopped speaking.
PART TWO — BECOMING
Nothing happens by chance. The neighborhood that raised her — where Andrew Young was the family next door and Dr. Benjamin Mays asked a little girl about her dreams. The women who prayed over her future in a Chicago brownstone before she understood what her future was. The room of W.E.B. Du Bois. The country woman in Hueytown who put her back together. The dream that became a detour that became a calling.
PART THREE — LOVE, FAMILY, AND MINISTRY
The man her biological father introduced her to. The wedding she did not plan — including the Valium her mother gave her and the ex-boyfriend who appeared at the rehearsal dinner and again at the wedding. The Texas years. Six people in a science classroom. The children she carried and the children she never held.
PART FOUR — WHEN THE BODY DECLARED WAR
February 2019. The weight she released and the weight she gained simultaneously. The diagnosis. The chair. The congregation she found in a dialysis center she never would have chosen. The birthday spent in the chair. The photograph in the hospital gown with the playful face. The snowstorm and seven days without dialysis. The year of ten.
PART FIVE — THE HIDDEN WEIGHT
The caregiver nobody saw — her husband and her mother in the same nursing home. The silence. Letting go of the house.
PART SIX — STILL HERE
The woman who loved the water and the freedom illness made harder to reach. Building everything while sick. The people who stayed. Still here.
"The story is not that I never suffered. The story is that God never left."
— Pastor Nicole Washington
"From a plantation back porch to a dialysis chair in Peachtree Corners, Georgia — and God has been faithful on every mile of the road."
— Pastor Nicole Washington
WHY THIS BOOK EXISTS
Most memoirs tell the story of one person's life.
This one tells the story of a wound that started on a plantation back porch and traveled through six generations of American history — and the woman who chose to be the generation where the wound stopped.
It is the story of what happens when a little girl who grew up feeling unseen in a neighborhood full of civil rights heroes grows up to build a publishing house from a dialysis chair.
It is the story of Blanche and her Psalm 23. Of Aunt Willie Mae and her sayings. Of Dr. Aldis Mitchell running toward the wounded. Of six people in a science classroom who became the beginning of a ministry. Of a burned pancake that tasted like the best thing she ever ate because her daughter made it.
It is the story of ten near-death medical crises in a single year — and books written anyway.
It is the story of love that does not require presence to remain love.
It is the story of purpose that does not expire.
And it is for every person who has ever wondered whether God was still writing their story.
He is.
He has never put down the pen.
I'm Still Here releases October 1, 2026 — Pastor Nicole's 65th birthday.
BE THE FIRST TO KNOW
I'm Still Here releases October 1, 2026.
Drop your name and email below. The moment it is available you will be the first to know.
If You Are Still Here — This Book Is For You.
You survived things that should have stopped you.
You are still here.
And if you are still here — God is not finished with your story.
Neither is Pastor Nicole.
I'm Still Here arrives October 1, 2026.
Or share this page with someone who needs to know their story is not over.
"Nothing happens by chance. Not even the fact that you found this page today."
— Pastor Nicole Washington