Virtually everyone knows the story of Helen Keller – the girl who was born both, Blind and Deaf. She was 7 years of age before she ever came in contact with any kind of training. At this time, Keller was worse than a wild animal – of which she was often called and treated as such. The Famous “Helen Keller” would have never been famous had it not been for a woman named Anne Sullivan.
Anne Sullivan was the daughter of Irish immigrant farmers Thomas Sullivan and Alice Cloesy; she had one brother, Jimmie, who was crippled from tuberculosis. Growing up, Anne was subject to poverty and physical abuse by her alcoholic father and at the age of five, trachoma struck Anne, leaving her almost blind. Two years later, her mother died and her father abandoned his children to an orphanage in Tewksbury where her brother died shortly thereafter. Despite being left in an orphanage with no formal educational facilities, Anne Sullivan prospered. When the state board of charities chairman, Frank Sanborn visited the Tewksbury orphanage; Anne literally threw herself in front of him crying, "Mr. Sanborn, I want to go to school."
After regaining her eyesight from a series of operations and graduating as class valedictorian in 1886 from the Perkins Institute for the Blind, she began teaching Helen Keller. When Sullivan first arrived, Helen was seven years old and highly undisciplined. Sullivan had to begin her teaching with lessons in obedience, followed by teachings of the manual and Braille alphabets. All who came in contact with them were amazed at the ability of Anne to reach Helen and Keller's heightened ability to grasp concepts unheard of by deaf and blind students before her. Alexander Graham Bell, Andrew Carnegie, Henry H. Rogers and John Spaulding were only a few who witnessed & supported.
If anyone would dare venture out upon a quest into the backgrounds & history of the famous, successful and accomplished in past generations, one would find many who came from horrific backdrops of obscurities and no doubt become inspired by the Miraculous from Misery and Misfortune. Only a few can assume to understand what many of the struggling know, go through or came from. And a few will dare witness Possibility – we call a Miracle in the Making.
Dr Tim McClure
