At the age of 19 months, Helen Keller was a happy, healthy girl. She could already say a few words. Unfortunately, she had a high fever which caused her to become deaf and blind. No longer could she see nor hear. The fever cut her off from the outside world, depriving her of sight and sound. It was as if she had been thrown into a dark prison cell from which there could be no release. She felt lost.
After that, she began to explore the world by using her other senses. She learned to do many things this way. For example, she could recognize people by feeling of their faces or their clothes.
She made up signs with her hands so she could "talk" to her family. She had 60 different signs. Helen was a very bright child. Soon she found herself was different from other children——she couldn't talk. This made her so angry that she used to hurl herself around the room, kicking and screaming in frustration.
The family knew they had to do something to help her. So, just before her seventh birthday, the family hired a private tutor — Anne Sullivan. Anne taught Helen the signs for the letters of the alphabet. Then she would "spell" the words in Helen's hand to communicate with her. One day Anne led Helen to the water pump and pumped water on her hand. She spelled the letters W-A-T-E-R as the water ran over Helen's hand. She did this over and over again. At last it dawned on Helen that the word "water" meant the water which she felt pouring over her hand. This opened up a whole new world for her. She ran everywhere asking Anne the name of different things and Anne would spell the words in her hand.
Helen had an amazing memory, and she also had skills very few people have ever been able to develop. She could put her fingers to a person's lips and understand the words which were being spoken.
While she was in college she wrote her book called "The Story of My Life". With the money she earned from the book she could afford a house.
She became famous and traveled around the world speaking to
groups of people. She met many important and well-known people as she traveled.
After her death in 1968 an organization was set up in her name to combat blindness in the developing world. Today that agency, Helen Keller International, is one of the biggest organizations working with blind people overseas.
I am touched by how firm Helen is. Compared to her, we are much healthier and live a happier life. After reading the story of her, I get to know how necessary we should enjoy our life. And I realize that if you keep working hard, you will succeed sooner or later. Helen will always be remembered as a heroine in my mind.
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