Maria Sharapova

Condoleezza Rice

Helen Keller `s name symbolizes the courage of an indomitable spirit .The story of her life comes alive to every reader belonging to just about any generation. Her pain and isolation bridges the gap between the deaf and blind Helen and her readers .She fought overwhelming odds and came across a winner; so her story gives hope to people who find themselves in hopeless situations.

Helen` s father was the editor of the local newspaper and owned a cotton plantation while her mother worked on the plantation and economized by making her own butter, lard, bacon, and ham. Her father died in 1896 after a short illness. This was Helen  `s first great loss.

Helen was born a healthy baby with full sight and hearing . She was given full attention what a first born baby at the home should get. Helen `s mother wanted to name her baby Helen Everett after her own mother but her father had wanted to give her the name of Mildred Campbell, an ancestor on his side whom he respected a great deal. But eventually she was called Helen Adams.

Which changed her life forever. She got a fever and doctors said it was acute congestion of the stomach and the brain. Early one morning when she was cured of the fever everyone at home was very happy but no one till then even suspected that she would never be able to see or hear then onwards.

After her illness , she clung to her mother for support .She would touch and feel the objects around her.. Gradually she learnt to communicate by nodding her head and gesturing with her hands .Martha Washington , her cook `s daughter and Belle their dog, stayed with her most of the time.

She could communicate with Martha quite well as she learnt her sign language. Both Martha and Helen use to try lot of mischief together. In fact it was Helen `s love for pranks that set her parents thinking. They should arrange for a teacher for educating Helen before her mind got occupied in meaningless activities.  Helen `s father went to Perkins Institute in Boston, where much was being done for the blind.

A ray of hope came to him in the form of a letter of assurance from Boston that a teacher was finally found for Helen .She was Anna Mansfield Sullivan. This was in the year 1886. Just three months before her seventh birthday in the year 1887, Helen `s teacher Miss Sullivan came to start her education .

At that time Helen was not aware about the surprising turn in her life. Miss Sullivan was of Irish immigrant stock and being a highly sensitive teacher she soon helped Helen to learn that every object had a name. Anne Sullivan was a fresh graduate and she had her own sight partially restored after an eye disease that nearly turned her blind. Perhaps  that is why she succeeded with her specialized training in providing the handicapped Helen the relevant guidance.

It  was entirely her unfailing and repeated attempts that later made  Helen Keller a legend all around the world. Helen resorted to more and more temper tantrums whenever Anne attempted to teach her table manners or make her brush her own hair and button her shoes. Anne punished her student gently during these tantrums by refusing to talk to her through the language of spelling words on the palm.

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