This is the allusionist in which I, Helen Zoltzman, find language sitting by a well, falling in love with its own reflection.

Coming up in today's show.

I personally did not want to die in the middle of a really boring, really silly 1980s like Power Ballad in like a dingy bar.

Well, we all have our limits and that was Lauren Marx's.

Okay, on with the show.

Words were everything. I mean, I've had just, it was all day, every day on stage, off stage, on the page.

Let's just go back to what happened to you.

Oh, sure. How old were you?

I was 27. In 2007. I was an actress and a director and a PhD student in New York.

And there was absolutely no warning. I mean, I was actually performing on stage when it happened.

I was, I went on stage to perform a karaoke duet.

What was the song?

I was total eclipse of the heart.

Wrong organ.

I know, but it's okay to laugh because I just really am glad I didn't die doing that.

So anyways, I was on stage. I was singing.

And I was up singing the song and then I was down.

I collapsed immediately because it was not known to me at the time, but an aneurysm had ruptured in my brain.

And it was emerging.

An aneurysm is a weakness in a blood vessel in the brain.

It's estimated that one in 50 people has such a weakness, but most will never even know about it.

Only about one in 25,000 aneurysms causes trouble.

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