HOUSTON — Meet Sherrel Lemon -- a very unconventional mom who got pregnant at 14.
Her story will bring tears to your eyes and a smile to your heart.
Lemon, who owns restaurant and bar Tipsy Treats, has been working since before she could drive.
“I was 14 when I got pregnant my freshman year," she said. "I called my mother at work and I told her that I was pregnant because I didn't want her to, like, kill me. I knew that I was safe if she was at work.”
Sherrel was 15 when her daughter Dlorean was born and 17 when she dropped out of Willowridge High School. Her mom made it clear that she will not make it easy for her.
“The only time I'm going to watch your child is when you're at work or at school," Lemon remembers her mother saying. "You're not going to begin to get anything for free.”
Lemon said others told her that she wouldn't be anything and her child wouldn't be anything, but Lemon ignored the negative. Instead, she read to her baby, worked double shifts and sent her to a small private school. Later Lemon married and divorced, having a second daughter Danielle who is now 18 and a freshman at LSU.
And “baby” Dlorean is now 29 and a doctor of medicine.
“She's an anesthesiologist," Lemon said. "I tried to talk her into plastic surgery, but she wasn't having it. I was like, 'I've had these stretch marks since I was 15. You owe me something!'”
Photos from Match Day show an emotional Dlorean when she learned she be training at the prestigious Massachusetts General Hospital. It is Harvard’s original and largest teaching hospital.
“'Oh my God! My daughter is going to go to Harvard and I'm going to be one of those Southern mothers, you know,'” Lemon joked.
With both girls grown, Lemon now has a new baby -- her business, which is stocked with family recipes and her daughters' support.
“A lot of my (high school) senior year was also helping my mom and giving back to my mom," Danielle said.
“There is no message big enough," Dlorean said to her mom. "I think I'd have to write it in the sky in a plane. But all I can say is thank you. That is it. Thank you. And every day I go to work trying to make sure that I do you proud. And so, I hope I am.”
Lemon insists her kids did their own hard work and their family has been blessed with a little grace.
“I'm just grateful to God that he gave me better kids than he gave my momma," Lemon humorously said.
Many told 14-year-old pregnant Sherrel to adopt or abort.
Her reply -- “I saved my kids’ life one time, right? But they saved my life many times. They gave me purpose.”