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Show Helen Keller: Inspiring i By JANET LOWE Copley News Service When I was a child, omplaining about some nvial problem likely would inng forth the name of Helen eller. "SO you're nearsighted," my teacher would scoff. "Helen Keller is deaf and blind, and that's never stopped her." June 27 will mark the birthday of a woman who served as a role model not only for other women, but for other handicapped persons and for all humanity. ; FOR A child, she was a tough model to live up to, but as I grew older I began to get j the message. There are 1 stories that we tell one another, year after year for f. generations, because they i show the progress of human behavior. i The tales of King Arthur do that. The drama of Joan of ! Arc and the life of Helen ! Keller are stories worth ( hearing again and again. These sagas tell children and v adults that one person can make a difference, a ; WHEN Keller was born, a i deaf, blind and mute person e was doomed to silence and 4 darkness forever. There was little hope for education, communication or stimula- 5 tion of any kind. , Helen Keller was a bright . and active baby, but an ill-ness ill-ness when she was 19 months old left her impaired per- manently. Her parents kept her at home, though she became hopelessly savage . I and hostile. An uncle advised A Keller's mother, I'You really 4 ought to put that child away, J Kate. She is mentally defective, defec-tive, and it is not pleasant to see her about." BUT THE family kept searching for a cure, or if that failed, someone to teach the child as much as possible. Because Anne Sullivan answered ans-wered the cry for help, Keller's story became the ' story of two courageous .women. They showed the world that handicapped persons per-sons have all the hopes, fears, needs and potential that all human kind possesses. Anne Sullivan, herself par-tiallv par-tiallv blind, and Helen Keller were a magical and explosive combination of intellect and vitality. SULLIVAN arrived at the Keller's household in Alabama to find an unkempt, rowdy child who grabbed, kicked, screamed and resisted resist-ed discipline. The great mind of Helen Keller, locked inside a dark and silent tomb, had reverted to animal instincts. Through hard work, Sullivan began to inch away the heavy stone that held Keller a prisoner. The movie "The Miracle Worker" dramatically depicted the day when Helen Keller first realized that the letters Sullivan was writing in her palm made up words, and that words stood for real objects. ob-jects. It was the discovery of language at an age when the mind could understand and preserve the memory. With language came thought and reasoning. KELLER later wrote. "Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness of something forgotten - a thrill of returning return-ing thought ... and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me." An expression of absolute joy spread over the youngster's young-ster's face, and that face, brimming with delight, became Helen Keller's hallmark hall-mark for life. ON THAT day, her very first to understand symbols, Helen Keller learned no less than 30 new words. Her zest for knowledge never diminished. By the age of 10 Helen Keller was a celebrity and remained in the world spotlight until her death, just before her 88th birthday. She sat upon the knee of the aging poet Whittier when she was a child. Queen Victoria asked after her progress. Oliver Wendell Holmes published a letter of hers in one of his books. She counted among her friends Mark Twain and Albert Einstein and was received at the White H ol:.c by every president from Grover Cleveland to John F. Kennedy. HELEN Keller and Anne Sullivan became friends for life. Sullivan refused to marry until she found a husband hus-band who understood that she would continue as a teacher and companion to her first and most amazing student. Though Anne Sullivan Macy died in 1936 and Helen Keller had other companions and teachers, she never forgot the first one. "HOW much of my delight in all beautiful things is innate in-nate and how much is due to her influence, ! im nsver tell." Sullivan's influence reached far beyond the one; pupil and friend, though. "Anne Sullivan," wrote Helen Keller, "was one of the pioneers in civilization for the blind and deaf. She s.t l ie usefulness of whole snuls in imperfect bodies." BY THE chance combina- r.t- ' ii her and student, iivu' aiuii- u friendship, a partnership, that by example changed the world for handicapped han-dicapped persons. The two women even helped tlujse of us who are merely nearsighted nearsight-ed to see more clearly. |