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An Inspiring Visit to Ivy Green

© Martine G. Bates

Helen Keller has for many years been considered a role model for people facing challenges. She was named to Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of the Twentieth Century. She spent most of her adult life traveling around the world working to improve conditions for the blind. She wrote a number of books, which were translated into 50 languages, and she was recognized with such honors by governments around the world.

If you have seen the movie “The Miracle Worker,” you know the story of her childhood. For those of you who haven’t, it’s an amazing story. Born perfectly normal, Helen contracted an illness at 18 months that left her blind and deaf. In the late 1800s there were few resources available for handicapped children, so Helen became a wild and unruly little girl, throwing tantrums to express her frustration and displeasure, eating from everyone’s plate at the table, and scratching and biting when she failed to get her way.

When she was six, her father sought help from Alexander Graham Bell, who was doing a lot of work in the field of deafness. The result of this visit was that Annie Sullivan moved in with the Keller family to teach Helen; Helen’s life and the lives of many others were changed forever as a result.

I recently visited Helen’s home in Tuscumbia, Alabama. Named Ivy Green for the English ivy that grows on the property, the home is preserved in much the same state as when Helen was growing up. The lovely house, certainly grand in its day, sits at the end of a lane of trees, many of which were planted when the house was built in 1820 by Helen’s grandfather.

A museum chronicling Helen’s life and remarkable accomplishments is housed in the main building.

Outside the main house sits the attraction everyone is eager to see: the famous pump where Helen got her first inkling of language, a concept that would bring her out of the dark prison she had lived in for so long.

Because Helen had to be tamed before she could be taught and the Kellers could not bear for her to be disciplined, Annie Sullivan was granted permission to take her to live in a two-room house near the main house.

Sue Pilkilton, Director of Ivy Green, reported that Sullivan did not want Helen to know how close to home she was, so they put her in the family carriage and rode for two hours before returning to the property. Fooled, Helen never figured out that her parent were only a few yards away, and Sullivan was free to provide the discipline needed to allow Helen’s natural intelligence to surface.

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