When They Were Girls

by Rebecca Deming Moore

On June 27, 1880, Helen Keller was born in the little Alabama town of Tuscumbia. For nineteen months she was just like any other happy, healthy baby girl. Then a severe illness took away her sight and hearing, and, because she was unable to hear her baby words, she soon forgot how to talk.

One day when Helen was nearly seven years old, a new doll was put into her arms. Then, in her hand a lady made the letters d-o-l-l in the deaf alphabet. Helen did not know that things had names, but she was amused with this new game and imitated the letters for her mother. Helen’s new friend and teacher was Miss Anne Sullivan. She had come from the Perkins Institution for the Blind, in Boston, to teach this little girl.

When the finger game had been going on for a month, Miss Sullivan spelled the word, w-a-t-e-r, into Helen’s hand, letting her feel the water from the pump. A light broke over Helen’s face. For the first time she understood that everything had a name. She touched the pump and the trellis, and asked for their names. In a few hours she had learned thirty new words. That night Helen went to bed very happy, looking forward, for the first time in her life, to another day.

A new, joyous life now began for this little girl whose mind had been in the dark. She soon realized that every word that she would learn would provide her with a new and pleasant thought. Miss Sullivan gave Helen slips of cardboard on which words were printed in raised letters. She never tired of playing the game of arranging these words in sentences.

Down by the river Helen built dams of pebbles and dug lakes and bays and was taught how the world is made. In the woods her teacher put a violet or dogwood blossom in her hand and explained about growing things. She learned to know the crickets and katydids by holding them in her hand. Helen played all these games, not realizing that she was learning lessons.

When Helen was eight years old, Miss Sullivan took her to Boston to the Perkins Institution for the Blind. The child was delighted to find there little girls and boys who could talk to her in the language of the hand. She enjoyed, too, the books in the library printed in raised type, and began to read in earnest. It was at this time that she climbed Bunker Hill Monument, counting every step. She had another lesson in history at Plymouth Rock.

It was difficult, of course, for Helen to talk with people who did not know the deaf alphabet. Miss Sullivan had to spell out the conversation into her hand. When Helen heard of a deaf girl who had been taught to speak, she was determined to learn too.

It was the hardest task that she had undertaken, for she could not hear the sound of her own voice nor see the lips of others. She would feel the position of her teacher’s tongue and lips when making a sound, and then imitate the motions. Constant practice and the great desire to achieve always spurred her efforts. It was slow, tedious work, but Helen persevered.

She did succeed in learning to speak. It was a very happy day when Helen actually spoke to her parents and to her little sister Mildred.

At ten years of age Helen had put her whole heart and will into learning to speak. Six years later, after having studied lip-reading, French and German, and other difficult subjects, she determined to undertake what seemed like another impossibility. She made up her mind to go to college!