35 | A Delightful Little Life

Angelyn Pass was an actress-turned-artist, making holiday ornaments in her Midtown studio, when a massive headache dropped her to the floor. Hours later she woke in Emory’s neuro-ICU, intubated, fresh from emergency surgery on a ruptured aneurysm. She spent weeks relearning, rebuilding and refusing to be defined by tubes and machines and she willed herself back to a craft fair barely ten days after discharge. But the real recovery began later: admitting the memory gaps, moving to start over, taking meticulous notes to be a better friend, finding purpose in helping others through legal casework, and—eventually—letting her creativity return on gentler terms. Angelyn didn’t see tunnels or light; she remembers “just nothing”—and from that void came a new vow: to stop chasing an identity and choose a smaller, kinder life she actually loves.  Story Producer: Nicholas Tecosky Cover Art: Angelyn Pass If you have a transformative near-death experience to share, we’d love to hear your story! Please email us at [email protected] We’d love to hear your story! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.