Hellen Keller,who is an inspiration to millions of people taught us the lesson of the success.Here is the inspiring and intresting story of overcome,of pain and happiness
Early Life and Childhood
Helen Adams Keller was born on june 27,1880,in Tuscumbia,Alabama as the daughter of Arthur H Keller and Kate adams.Her family lived on a homestead, Ivy Green, that Helen’s grandfather had built decades earlier.
Helen keller was born as an ordinary child with the ability to see and hear.When she was 1 year and 7 months old she contracted with an illness.The doctors described it as “an acute congestion of the stomach and brain”.which might have been scarlet fever or meningitis.The illness left her when she was fully deaf and blind.At that time, she was able to communicate somewhat with Martha Washington,the six year old daughter of the family cook,who understood her signs.by the age of 7 she had more than 60 home signs
In 1886, Keller’s mother, inspired by an account in Charles Dickens’ American Notes of the successful education of another deaf and blind woman, Laura Bridgman, dispatched young Helen, accompanied by her father, to seek out physician J. Julian Chisolm, an eye, ear, nose, and throat specialist in Baltimore, for advice.Chisholm referred the Kellers to Alexander Graham Bell, who was working with deaf children at the time. Bell advised them to contact the Perkins Institute for the Blind, the school where Bridgman had been educated, which was then located in South Boston. Michael Anagnos, the school’s director, asked 20-year-old former student Anne Sullivan, herself visually impaired, to become Kellen’s instructor.
It was the beginning of a 49-year-long relationship during which Sullivan evolved into Keller’s governess and eventually her companion.Anne sullivan taught her to communicate by spelling words into her hand.and she learned the world as words on her hand
She had her education from Perkins institute,wright humason school for deaf,horace mann school,cambridge school and radcliffe college.Determined to communicate with others as conventionally as possible,keller learned to speak,and spent much of her life giving speeches and lectures.She learned to hear the people with reading their lips with her hands-her sense of touch had become extremely subtle. She became proficient at using Braille lipi and reading sign language with her hands as well.she enjoyed music with placing the hands at the table.
you may read the speech of helen keller “strike against war” on the following link;www.afb.org/helen_keller
Companions
Anne sullivan stayed as a companion after she taught helen.Anne married john macy in 1905,and her health started failing around 1914
kellen moved to forest hills,Queens with anne and john,and used the house as a base for her efforts on behalf of the ‘American Foundation For The Blind’
Anne sullivan died in 1936 after a coma,with keller holding her hand.Keller and Thomson moved to connecticut.They traveled around the world and raised money for the blind.Thomson had a stroke and she died in 1960.Then keller’s companion was Winnie Corbally,a nurse who was then her companion life-long
Political activities
Keller went on to become a world-famous speaker and author. She is remembered as an “advocate for people with disabilities”, amid numerous other causes. She was a suffragette, a pacifist, an opponent of Woodrow Wilson, a radical socialist and a birth control supporter. In 1915 she and George Kessler founded the Helen Keller International (HKI) organization. This organization is devoted to research in vision, health and nutrition. In 1920, she helped to found the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Keller traveled to over 40 countries with Sullivan, making several trips to Japan and becoming a favorite of the Japanese people. Keller met every U.S. President from Grover Cleveland to Lyndon B. Johnson.She was a friend of Charlie chaplin.Keller was a member of the Socialist Party and actively campaigned and wrote in support of the working class from 1909 to 1921.she wrote of finding “in Henry George’s philosophy a rare beauty and power of inspiration, and a splendid faith in the essential nobility of human nature.”
Keller joined the Industrial Workers of the World,saying that parliamentary socialism was “sinking in the political bog”.
Writings
One of her writings were at the age 11.but there were allegations that this story was copied
from “The Frost Fairies”by margaret canby.An investigation into the matter revealed that Keller may have experienced a case of cryptomnesia, which was that she had Canby’s story read to her but forgot about it, while the memory remained in her subconscious.
then her works were The story of my life(1903),The world i live in(1908),Out of the dark(1913)and her autobiography, My Religion, was published in 1927 and then in 1994 extensively revised and re-issued under the title Light in My Darkness
Honours
Keller suffered a series of strokes in 1961.
on september 14,1964,then president Lyndon B.Johnson awarded her the presidential medal of freedom,one of the united state’s two highest civilian honors.in 1965 she was elected to the National Women’s Hall Of Fame at the new york world’s fair
Death and Legacy
She died in her sleep on june 1,1968,at her home on her 87th age. service was held in her honor at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., her body was cremated and her ashes were placed there next to her constant companions, Anne Sullivan and Polly Thomson. She was buried at the Washington National Cathedral.
Her birthplace in West Tuscumbia, Alabama, is now a museum and sponsors an annual “Helen Keller Day”. Her birthday on June 27 is commemorated as Helen Keller Day in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and was authorized at the federal level by presidential proclamation by President Jimmy Carter in 1980, the 100th anniversary of her birth.
Her Life was a legend.without eyes and ears she won the hearts of millions and Lead the people to light.So ofcourse she was a legend.With many disabilities she won the life.If she can Why can’t us?
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