From victim to victor

Sabrina Greenlee to speak at Healing and Hope luncheon

The founder of S.M.O.O.O.T.H., a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering women impacted by domestic violence, will be the guest speaker at an annual event in Fort Bend centered on domestic violence.

Some may know the name Sabrina Greenlee after she shared her story of survival and overcoming obstacles last year with The Root’s Deputy Editor Tatsha Robertson, but on Oct. 17, Greenlee will continue to share her experiences, motivations and goals as a survivor of domestic violence at the Fort Bend Women’s Center 6th Annual Healing & Hope Luncheon — the center’s annual keynote event in recognition of Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

The luncheon is set for 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Houston Marriott Sugar Land, 16090 City Walk and will benefit the Fort Bend Women’s Center.

As the only full-service domestic violence and sexual assault emergency shelter and crisis hotline in Fort Bend, the Fort Bend Women’s Center provided supportive services to 1,368 adults and 633 youth and assistance to 211 sexual assault survivors last year. Additionally, the center offered more than 9,300 mental health service hours and more than 36,500 case management service hours.

The nonprofit also reported that it received 11,221 calls to its crisis hotline.

“Healing & Hope [...] will provide a powerful testimo nial of courage, strength, and resilience,” stated Fort Bend Women’s Center officials. “You will be in spired by the tenacity of a woman, who de spite all odds, continued to persevere by not just surviving, but thriving.”

A Powerful Story

Although most are appalled, shocked and grieved by the acid attack that blind ed Greenlee in 2002, her story of overcoming physical, mental and emotional brutality began in childhood.

When she was 10 years old she was sexually as saulted by a man she knew, and neither her mother nor grandmother believed her, and one of her broth ers, who was 12 at the time, died in her arms after a car accident. She told The Root that following her brother’s death, her mother forewent the parental at tention her surviving children needed, and by the time she was 18, Greenlee had become a teenage mother, had gone through harsh relationships and married an abusive man.

But the late Harris Steve Hopkins, came into her life when Greenlee said she was broken, lost and needed saving. Greenlee said Steve, as he was known, never abused her, and the two had a son, who became NFL player DeAndre Hopkins. Greenlee said Steve also cared for her older two children as if they were his. But when their son, DeAndre, was a few months old, Steve died in a car accident.

In the years that followed, she had her fair share of turbulent experiences as she pushed forward as a single mother. In 2002, however, Greenlee suffered an encounter that put her life on an unanticipated trek and blinded her.

A man she was dating then had a girlfriend — a woman Greenlee was unaware of — who threw a mixture of Red Devil Lye and Clorox onto Greenlee.

Blood was everywhere, her skin was slipping off, she couldn’t see, and her ex-boyfriend took her to a nearby gas station. She describes the chaotic moment of having her ex and the store attendant throw water on her from a fountain in the back. Amid the pain and chaos, though, her ex-boyfriend abandoned her.

“I hear [the clerk], but I don’t hear him anymore,” she said in an interview with The Root. “Well, he leaves me there to die.”

But Greenlee didn’t.

She was put into a medically induced coma for about a month and when she woke, the road ahead of her consisted of pain, setbacks, and indescribable challenges as she tried to regain sight and move forward.

Greenlee had more than 30 surgeries on each eye, but the operations left her eyes weak, resulting in permanent detachment of her retinas. Greenlee is permanently blind in her right eye and has about 60 percent of sight in her left eye.

The woman who attacked her with the mixture was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

For a little more than three years, Greenlee said she stayed in her room except to go to eye appointments, and at a low point, considered throwing herself into traffic.

“I was broken and I was tired — so tired of being tired, I had to have people come in to come in and feed my children,” she said in a 2022 interview with The Root Institute. “Life was bad.”

The home she shared with her four children was located near a highway, and Greenlee said she figured she could touch each mailbox to reach it. It was her son, DeAndre Hopkins, who stopped her.

“I figured if I could get out of the house and touch each mailbox [ ...] and get to the final mailbox, I would hear a car coming and throw myself in the road,” Greenlee said.

When she reached the second mailbox her son, who had been following her the entire time, “put his big hand on [her] shoulder” to stop her. They embraced. Greenlee said she was startled because she didn’t know her son was following.

“We never said a word, we start walking back to the house. I went back in my room and we went in his room, and we never talked about it again for years.”

RESTORING, RECREATING AND REPAIRING

Although she said her life has been “no crystal stair,” Greenlee credits her faith for fueling her confidence to inspire people to restore, recreate and repair themselves.

The South Carolina native, mother of four, and grandmother of six became the founder and CEO of S.M.O.O.O.T.H., Inc. — Speaking Mentally, Outwardly Opening Opportunities Toward Healing.

The nonprofit, which Greenlee launched about 10 years ago, connects survivors to reputable community aids, including counseling, personal and mental health, and financial and legal resources.

Through this platform, Greenlee and her team educate and empower women and children through outreach efforts and programs such as Pretty Scars Into Stars, 100 Shades of Purple, S.M.O.O.O.T.H. Santa, and the S.M.O.O.O.T.H. Transition Initiative.

Greenlee is also a recipient of the 2020 Houston Humanitarian Awards and that same year participated in a virtual panel discussion for domestic violence alongside Lisa Nichols hosted by Bank Of America.

She has been featured on ESPN, USA Today, and Living in Fear: Chronicles I and II, which won an Emmy, and regularly appears on local media outlets from South Carolina to Texas.

Greenlee recently emceed the women’s empowerment rally that hosted over 10,000 Houstonians and appeared on ABC News with the CEO of the National Domestic Violence Hotline.

Greenlee is also preparing for an autobiography film, “Sabrina,” which is based on her life. The film will be released by BRON Studios.

“My mom has always put everyone before herself and sacrificed things unimaginable,” DeAndre Hopkins said in a statement regarding the film. “Now it’s time for people to see her true value and learn that giving up is not an option.”