When she was about a year and a half old,
she had an illness that left her deaf and blind.
She couldn’t hear anyone’s voice to copy,
so she couldn’t learn to speak.
She was eventually taught to do so
by a teacher called Annie Sullivan.
Helen Keller graduated from college with honours,
and later visited many countries,
speaking about winning through,
despite difficulties and physical handicaps.
She once said:
“Most of us take life for granted.
Only the deaf appreciate hearing;
only the blind appreciate being able to see.
It is the same old story of not being grateful for what we have
until we lose it,
of not being conscious of health
until we are ill.
Use your eyes
as if tomorrow you would be blind.
Hear the music of voices, the song of the birds,
as if tomorrow you would be deaf.
Touch each object
as if tomorrow your sense of touch would fail.
Smell the perfume of flowers, and taste your food
as if tomorrow
you would never be able to smell or taste again.
Make every sense glory in the pleasure and beauty
which the world reveals.Then you will really see,
and a new world of beauty will open up before you.