Perhaps it’s fitting that Jill Bolte Taylor’s life will change by being named to the Time magazine list of the World’s 100 Most Influential People.

After all, Taylor thinks that distinction will help her change others’ lives.

“It’s essentially like the world saying, ‘Go tell the world your story, and we’ll give you the platform to do that,’” the Terre Haute native told the Tribune-Star. “It’s like a gift from heaven.”

Her experience seemed like anything but a divine gift on Dec. 10, 1996, when she was living in Boston and working at Harvard University. That’s when Taylor — a scientist and college instructor who specializes in the inner workings of the brain — suffered a potentially lethal stroke. In a four-hour span that morning, a hemorrhage in the left hemisphere of Taylor’s brain rapidly erased her ability to walk, talk, communicate and remember. But because of her expertise, Taylor understood what was happening.

Unlike the majority of people who suffer such a stroke, caused by a congenital malformation of the blood vessels, Taylor, now 48, recovered fully, though the rehabilitation process was long. Eventually, she resumed her work and now teaches neuroanatomy for the Bloomington Medical Sciences program at the Indiana University School of Medicine. She also studies brain cancer cases at the IU Midwest Proton Radiotheraphy Institute.

In the past, her forum for explaining the mysteries of the brain came through her travels as “The Singin’ Scientist,” carrying a guitar and a jar of preserved human brains. She also penned a book, “My Stroke of Insight.”

The Time exposure gives Taylor’s message, which focuses on the power of the brain. Taylor herself learned to tap into the abilities of the right hemisphere, which handles the present, the world around us and our connection to others. The left side, which had shut down for Taylor, controls methodical thought, the past and the future.

The stroke, she said, made her a more compassionate person. Others can do the same.