Helen Keller has got to be up there as one of the most remarkable women in American history; a true inspiration to us all. Born in Alabama in 1880, Helen contracted an illness which left her blind and deaf before the age of two. Having no sight or hearing capabilities, little Helen became an unruly, frustrated young girl and by the age of seven her parents could hardly control her. They needed to find some way to communicate. Enter Annie Sullivan – probably the most famous teacher there ever was and just what young Helen needed. Strict, patient and lively herself, Anne Sullivan was eventually successful in communicating words to Helen by spelling them in the palm of her hand. “W-A-T-E-R†was the breakthrough word as the two stood beneath the pump outside. As water streamed onto Helen’s one hand, Sullivan spelled the word in her other. Everything changed from that day forward. Eventually Helen Keller would learn to read, write and talk. She learned five different languages in Braille. She entered Radcliffe College (i.e., the female version of Harvard) by the time she was 20. She wrote books, she lectured and travelled all over the world, she met people of great importance who were equally as honored to meet her. She was given the highest honor a civilian can receive: the Presidential Medal of Freedom. So if you ever bellyache about any obstacles you may face, conjure up this woman who accomplished more than most people with so much less! A senator from Alabama said it best in his eulogy: that Helen Keller was “the woman who showed the world there are no boundaries to courage and faith.”
