The second of our four finalists for Remarkable Women is a Cordova woman who launched the beginnings of a successful global business from her hospital bed.

Jiljuana Jamerson Coleman runs Jamerson Strategic Consulting, an international business, out of her Cordova home. Her clients aren’t just in Memphis — they’re also in places like Canada, South Africa, and Ghana.

“I was shocked. I didn’t even know that I had been nominated. And for someone to think of me as being a remarkable woman here in Memphis, I was surprised and I was honored all at the same time,” she said.

Her company works with businesses on how they can compete globally and export and helps governments enact positive trade policies.

Her international relations have even earned her royal status. While working as a diplomatic liaison for Memphis in May, her company was assigned to the king of the Ashanti Empire during his Memphis visit.

“He sat down and had a one-on-one conversation with me and welcomed me back to Ghana and said he was adopting me as his daughter and that I should do everything possible to come home and spend time in Ghana. And since then, I think I’ve been there maybe five times, really helping women have an economy and advancing global trade between the U.S. and Ghana,” she said.

Since that encounter, she has gone by Lady Jill. She is fulfilling her responsibility to help women abroad and domestically through her Pink Crown initiative, which is the reason so many of them adorn her office.

“We take a group of women and we work with them, providing them with technical assistance, capacity building, marketing, and branding to give them access to our network and to the global market.”

Lady Jill’s journey to success has come with its own set of challenges. She’s battled cancer and a rare nervous system disorder that left her almost bedridden in 2012.

“I wasn’t able to do anything for myself and from my hospital bed, I remembered my dream of being an entrepreneur and having this global consulting firm, and I launched my business from right there in the hospital bed,” she said.

Treatment allows her to function most days. Faith sustains her during painful flare-ups.

“I continue to fight. I continue to pray. And now I’m what doctors call a miracle because people that go through this don’t have the story that I have.”

She’s a mentor to women around the world and a mom to a 2-year-old little boy. Lady Jill and her husband have no biological children but have fostered five children over the years.