Many Thanks: A Small Meditation on the Village that Made Hellen Keller

Many Thanks: A Small Meditation on the Village that Made Hellen Keller June 27, 2015

Helen & Anne

Helen Keller was born on this day in 1880. She is justly recalled as a singular figure. And, of course, in truth however unique we might be, in a deep and true way, it takes a village. None of us, even the most remarkable, the most driven, the hardest worker, ever does it completely on their own. And so this morning I find myself thinking about those people who led to the miracle that was Helen Keller.

For instance there is Dr Samuel Gridley Howe, genius and monster who decided he could teach a deafblind person, something that never had been done before. He finds a promising candidate in the deafblind child, Laura Bridgman who is living in the far northern reaches of New Hampshire. And for the first time in history he does just that, he gives Laura language.

Another could be Charles Dickens and his account of meeting Laura Bridgman, in American Notes, which will be read by Helen Keller’s mother, breathing hope into her heart and inspiring her to write Perkins School for the Blind, where Dr Howe had done his remarkable work a generation earlier. (And where my spouse Jan Seymour-Ford who first told the following story to me served as research librarian for fourteen years, and today continues with them as a consultant.)

And it is that story which haunts my dreams of miracles.

Anne Sullivan was fourteen years old. She was nearly blind. Four years earlier she and her five-year old brother had been placed in a state Poor House in Tewksbury, Massachusetts. Her brother quickly succumbed to tuberculosis exacerbated, no doubt, by the horrific conditions in which they were forced to live.

It does not appear things could be worse for this child.

Then she learns a delegation of important men from the state are going to visit the Poor House, led by someone named Frank Sanborn. All she knows is this is a chance, a clutching at straws chance, but all she may ever get.

The delegation comes. The children are presented to them. Anne pushes her way to the front and throws herself at Mr Sanborn.

She cries out, “Mr Sanborn, Mr Sanborn, I want to go to school!”

Again, she is fourteen years old.

Frank Sanborn was as an important man, also on the Board of Trustees at Perkins. He tells his friend Michael Anagnos, Dr Howe’s successor at the school about this impudent and remarkable child who is near blind, but fierce in her desire to do better. Fascinated Mr Anagnos sends for Anne.

And some years later in response to Mrs Keller’s request, he sends his sometimes difficult, ambitious, burning to be of use, star student, Anne to Alabama.

For the miracle that is Hellen Keller, there needed to be a confluence of many remarkable things, people.

Most of all, today, I find myself thinking of that girl, fierce, impudent, and now grown up, a miracle worker who opened a door for another wonder.

Happy birthday, Helen.

And thank you to so many who came into Helen’s life, who opened doors, who gave her the gift that she used so brilliantly.

The Village.

And of those, most of all, thank you, Anne.


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