The Story of Helen Keller
Helen Keller was an author and a social worker in the United States. Although unable to see, hear, or speak, she overcame all these handicaps. Moreover, she devoted her life to the welfare of blind, deaf people and gave them a light of hope. She is commonly called ‘The Holy Woman with a Triple Handicap’, or ‘The Angel of Light’.
Helen Keller was born as the daughter of a landlord in Tuscumbia, Alabama. She was born healthy, however, lost both of her sight and hearing by a terrible febrile disease when she was only 18 months old. Helen’s parents were worried about her and hired Anne Sullivan as her tutor when she was seven years old. Thanks to Anne Sullivan’s strict and perseverant education, Helen learned how to write and entered Perkins school for blind people when she was eight. After learning how to speak from the schoolmaster of the Boston School for the Deaf at the age of ten, she made active efforts to overcome her difficulties. In 1900, at the age of twenty, she entered Harvard University’s Radcliff College, where she graduated with honors.
After graduating, Helen was appointed as a member of the Massachusetts State Blind Person Relief Committee in the year 1906 and worked hard to improve society. In 1924, she began lecturing for the American Foundation for the Blind. She gave lectures throughout the U.S. and the world where she raised
funds to establish public welfare and educational facilities for deaf and blind people. Moreover, she devoted her whole life to improving living conditions and understanding handicapped people. On the first of June, 1968, Helen Keller passed away at the age of 87 in Westport, Connecticut. Helen wrote The Story of My Life, Out of the Dark, My Religion, and others.
Anne Sullivan’s efforts immensely influenced Helen’s modern day legacy. In spite of her handicaps, Helen’s strong will and perseverance gave her the strength to continue life and carve out her future. Her spirit of love and service for less fortunate people is an impressive model for everyone.
