Somewhere in Alabama, at the start of 1882, Mr. and Mrs. Keller are extremely worried. Their baby girl (nineteen months old) is seriously ill. They are unsure if it’s scarlet fever or brain fever, but whatever is ailing their little Helen, is robbing her of her ability to hear and see.
The next five years are a slow descent into anguish and desperation as their toddler grows into a depressed and extremely angry little girl. She has intense temper tantrums that make her parents and nurses feel hopeless. They don’t know how to help her anymore.
The impact of one person
Helen’s mother remains patient and loving. She manages to connect and communicate with Helen by interpreting the child’s pushing, pulling and vague hand gestures. But socially Helen becomes more and more frustrated and her behaviour becomes more and more inappropriate.
Once, she locked her mother in the pantry and laughed with glee as she sat on the porch. She could feel her mother pounding on the door through the vibrations of the wooden planks beneath her. She felt no remorse, only more determination to get what she wanted.
Enter Anne Sullivan. Her arrival was the start of change, albeit not overnight, harmoniously or easily. When she arrived in 1887, her student was wild and stubborn, always expecting to get her way.
Anne did as she had learned at a school for the blind and traced words into Helen’s hand. This meant nothing to the seven-year-old until the now famous breakthrough. Helen finally made the connection between Anne’s finger motions in her palm spelling w-a-t-e-r and the actual water splashing on her from a pump.
The rest is history and the stuff films and series are made of. Helen eventually obtained a degree, wrote several books and became a prominent advocate for people with special needs. She also became a supporter of social and political causes such as voting rights for women, and workers’ rights.
Who was Anne Sullivan?
Anne was only 20 years old when she became Helen’s teacher and governess. She showed great maturity and ingenuity and became world-famous alongside her pupil over the many decades they worked together. As much as she positively changed Helen’s life through continuous education and learning, she also changed her own.
She was born in 1866 into a family ravaged by poverty. During the infamous Irish famine of the 1840’s, the Sullivan family immigrated to the USA, but did not find the American dream of wealth and prosperity. Two of Anne’s five siblings died in infancy and she and the remaining two grew up in abject degradation.
Health problems haunted the family. Anne contracted a bacterial eye infection when she was five years old, which left her mostly blind. Her mother was infirm after a serious fall and died from tuberculosis when Anne was eight. Her father was an abusive alcoholic.
Anne, however, was born with a strong will and outspoken personality. She often clashed with her father. Eventually, he abandoned his children and she was sent with a brother to an almshouse. The conditions there were horrendous and her brother died from neglect. What became of the second sibling is not quite clear, but Anne was now completely alone.
Somehow, she heard about special schools for the blind and one day her chance to escape came. A special commission visited the overcrowded, dirty and run-down almshouse. She followed them all day and had the impertinence to ask them to send her to a special school. And they did!
Making the world a better place
Anne landed at Perkins School for the Blind and even underwent surgery to improve her sight. Yet, her education was no happy fairy tale. She was ignorant and socially inept. Her rebellious temperament caused clashes with teachers and classmates as she constantly challenged the rules.
Even though she never felt accepted or at home, her bright intellect made her excel academically. She finished top of her class and delivered a profound farewell speech. Here are some phrases from that speech that are well worth learning by heart and implementing in your own life:
“Duty bids us go forth into active life.
Let us go cheerfully, hopefully, and earnestly,
and set ourselves to find our special part.
When we have found it,
willingly and faithfully perform it;
for every obstacle we overcome,
every success we achieve
tends to bring man closer to God
and make life more as he would have it.”
Can you see the pebble of education dropping into the pond of Anne’s life and guiding her to her purpose? Can you see the ripples intersecting with Helen Keller’s life and the lives of generations after them?
Mark Twain was the first person to call Anne Sullivan a miracle worker. But before her and around her were many more educational miracle workers, all contributing in smaller and larger ways to make life more as God would have it.
Have you found your purpose?
