Helen Keller: A Woman Who Broke Through Barriers

Born in Tuscambia, Alabama, at the turn of the 19th Century. When she was only nineteen months, she caught a deadly fever, which left her Deaf and Blind.

Helen relied on her remaining senses. She roamed through the garden, smelling the plants and touching the ground under her feet.

Her father (who was a newspaper Editor) never disciplined the child. This resulted in Helen's crude behavior.

When she was seven, Anne Sullivan was hired to be Helen's private tutor. Anne was blind and poor, when Perkins School for the Blind employed her. She struggled with the young girl, hoping to teach Helen how to communicate by using sign language.

Anne's determination paid off, after being able to spend several months alone with Helen. She tapped the word water into Helen's hand, then pumped the water. Helen "saw" the connection.

In her own words, she recalls the incident: "I knew then, that w-a-t-e-r meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. That living word awakened my soul, gave me light, hope, joy, and set it free."

Anne brought her back to the Institute, where she was able to use their Braille equipment. She learned from her teacher and became independent.

Helen wrote her first book "The Story of My Life", while she attended Radcliffe. She graduated with honors. She bought her own house, from the sales of the book.

She touched people all over the world. She lectured throughout the United States. In 1932, Helen set up the Royal National Institute for the Blind, in the United Kingdom.

Helen also wrote these books: Journal Midstream-My Later Life My Religion Teacher: Anne Sullvan Macy and The World I Live In.

After she died in 1968, an organization ( Helen Keller International) in her honor began to combat blindness.

Helen's positive attitude in a dark world is expressed in these two quotes:

"When one door of happiness closes, another opens. Often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us."

"Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as ofen as the bold. Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it."

A woman in Japan said of her:

"For many generations, more than we can count, we bowed our heads and submitted to blindness and begging. This blind and deaf woman lifts her head high and teachs us to win our way, by work and laughter. She brings us light and hope in the heart."

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