COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — On your worst day, you would like to have someone to comfort you, someone you know has been through a worst day, too.

If your worst day happened with a loved one at the OSU Wexner Medical Center, there is a chance Imani Jones was there to help. How she arrived there explains why Imani is one of the finalists for this year’s NBC4 Remarkable Woman.

“I’m willing to sit here with you in the struggle, in the turmoil, in the pain, and walk with you on that journey,” said Jones. “However long, however long it takes to get there.”

Imani’s daily work involves grief. She deeply understands the topic.

“As my family life sometimes was pretty dysfunctional and turbulent,” said Jones.

She grew up on the east side of Cleveland in a family struggling with alcoholism and abuse. But Imani found refuge at school. And as a 6th grader, she was inducted into the Ohio State Young Scholars Program, a program to aid at-risk kids in the pursuit of higher education. That included summer camps on OSU’s campus.

“That was the game changer for me because that showed me that there was life outside of my family, outside of my zip code, outside of that dysfunction, and that education was a pathway to liberation for me,” said Jones.

But when Imani was 15 her circumstances changed again. She learned she was pregnant.

“And I thought my life was over, I thought I have ruined everything,” said Jones. I have ruined the opportunity that I’ve been given, squandered it. To recognize that there’s redemption, that there’s reconciliation, that there’s a chapter two and a chapter three and a chapter ten of a book. Who writes a book, that’s only one chapter? And so, there is a tomorrow.”

Her son, Tyshon, joined her on her journey at daycare, as she finished high school and earned her scholarship to OSU. And that’s where she discovered her next calling — the church.

“For the first time, I felt loved and accepted unconditionally,” said Jones. “Those church ladies and those folks just took me in with my little son. We would catch the bus to church. We would catch a cab. We would catch the church bus. Church became so central to my being because it was a place that grounded me and accepted me for who I was and I didn’t feel alone.”

She finished her Ohio State degree. Then multiple masters from Princeton Theological Seminary. She met her husband, Colin, during their careers at OSU.

In 2009 they were called back to Columbus. Together they lead the congregation at Advent United Church of Christ on the east side.

She also serves as the director of the Department of Chaplaincy and Clinical Pastoral Education at OSU. Guiding people through darkness.

“It is very meaningful to meet people in some of the worst moments and some of the worst days of their lives,” said Jones. “I’ve got that worst day, and I’ve also got the other side of that worst day and usually the other side of that worst day happens in community and relationship with other people.”