She taught her how to use her hands as a way of speaking. Miss Sullivan took Helen out into the woods to explore nature. They also went to the circus, the theater, and even to factories. Miss Sullivan explained everything in the language she and Helen used -- a language of touch -- of fingers and hands. Helen also learned how to ride a horse, to swim, to row a boat and, even to climb trees. Suddenly, a wonderful smell in the air made me get up and put out my hands.
The spirit of spring seemed to be passing in my room. The next minute I knew it was coming from the mimosa tree outside. I walked outside to the edge of the garden, toward the tree. There it was, shaking in the warm sunshine.
Its long branches, so heavy with flowers, almost touched the ground. I walked through the flowers to the tree itself and then just stood silent.
Then I put my foot on the tree and pulled myself up into it. I climbed higher and higher until I reached a little seat. Long ago someone had put it there. I sat for a long time. Nothing in all the world was like this. Later, Helen learned that nature could be cruel as well as beautiful.
Strangely enough she discovered this in a different kind of tree. It was a fine morning. But it started to get warm and heavy. We stopped to rest two or three times. Our last stop was under a cherry tree a short way from the house. The shade was nice and the tree was easy to climb. Miss Sullivan climbed with me. It was so cool up in the tree we decided to have lunch there. I promised to sit still until she went to the house for some food.
Suddenly a change came over the tree. I knew the sky was black because all the heat, which meant light to me, had died out of the air. A strange odor came up to me from the earth. I knew it -- it was the odor which always comes before a thunderstorm. I felt alone, cut off from friends, high above the firm earth. I was frightened, and wanted my teacher. I wanted to get down from that tree quickly.
But I was no help to myself. There was a moment of terrible silence. Then a sudden and violent wind began to shake the tree and its leaves kept coming down all around me.
I almost fell. I wanted to jump, but was afraid to do so. I tried to make myself small in the tree, as the branches rubbed against me. Just as I thought that both the tree and I were going to fall, a hand touched me. It was my teacher. I held her with all my strength then shook with joy to feel the solid earth under my feet. Miss Sullivan stayed with Helen for many years. At 36 years of age, Helen fell in love with her temporary assistant, Peter Fagan, a newspaper journalist who was seven years her junior.
Fagan and Keller took out a marriage licence and tried to elope three separate times. Keller not only starred in a film Deliverance in about herself, she entertained on Vaudeville for a time in the s. Her A-list celebrity friends included Charlie Chaplin, and many famous directors, writers, composers and actors at the time. Whirlpool, a historical drama about Helen Keller, has qualified for the Academy-Award long list in the live action short film category. More information can be found at whirlpoolfilm.
Sign in. Only 14 years older than Helen, Anne was also visually impaired and just recently graduated from school. At first Helen did not make the connection between the letters on her palm and the objects. Quickly, she stopped and touched the earth and demanded its letter name and by nightfall she had learned 30 words. Surprising but true! Handily for Helen, Mark smoked 10 to 20 cigars a day, so she could easily recognise her friend from his scent.
In Helen was accepted into the famous Radcliff College in Cambridge along with her loyal teacher Anne, who attended alongside her to help interpret lectures and texts. By , she had not only written a book, but graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, becoming the first person who was deaf and blind to earn a college degree.
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