Melissa Williamson and Rachel Johnson attend East Texas Cornerstone Assistance Network's Transforming Lives luncheon on Wednesday Feb. 28, 2018 at Green Acres Baptist Church. (Sarah A. Miller/Tyler Morning Telegraph)

Throughout Lucille O’Neal’s life, she has encountered things many people can relate to — poverty, rejection, abuse and addiction.

“I was so beat up by the negative and it did something to me,” O’Neal said. “But when my life got transformed and I reclaimed my direction, it put me in a better place. I’m happy right now and I’m wealthy. Mentally I am so rich, it doesn’t have anything to do with money — it’s my mind that allows me to be wealthy.”

O’Neal, the mother of Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal, spoke Wednesday at the inaugural Transforming Lives Luncheon put on by the East Texas Cornerstone Assistance Network. Some 300 people attended.

The Tyler-based nonprofit is dedicated to transforming the lives of people in poverty through immediate employment, job training, resources and more, according to a news release. 

The focus of her message was about overcoming her trials and tribulations with the help of God.

O’Neal gave birth to Shaquille shortly after graduating from high school at the age of 17. A few years later she married and had three more children, Jamal, Ayesha and Lateefah.

Through raising her children and being an Army wife who traveled, she began to lose herself, but her message to her children remained the same. She wanted them to get an education to make their dreams come true. During those years, she struggled with alcoholism.

“Women go through things and they stand in places that they don’t want anyone to know what they are going through,” O’Neal said. “But our job as women and people is to encourage each other, so I give every opportunity that God gave me to encourage somebody. I share my story because I stand as a living witness that God can do anything. He can change your life around.”

Throughout those years, she remained loyal to her goal to raise her children to be comfortable in their skin and to pursue their dreams.

“I encouraged him to be happy in the skin that he is in because I haven’t always been happy in my skin,” she said of her advice to Shaquille. “But I learned how to do that. I had to instill in them that you are set up for … (some) kind of special leadership position. You are tall. People are going to look up to you; so give them something to look up to you for.”

O’Neal said her purpose in speaking was to share words of encouragement. 

“I tend to speak about things I know,” she said. “I know that there is hope in situations we encounter and maybe we don’t see a way out, I stand as a witness to that. I speak to the woman that feels so alone, I can speak to the woman that is depressed and feels like she has nowhere to go.”

Twitter: @BharmonDFW