The three lives of Helen Keller

the long version

Stricken by a strange disease when she was almost nineteen months old that left her so that she could not hear or see, Helen Keller began a life of loneliness in the sudden silence and blackness of a strange world that cut her off from all she knew and loved. Anne Sullivan arrived at the Keller homestead in Alabama early in 1887 and through patience and perseverance finally roused the first spark in the child's mind by teaching her the meaning of words attached to things and how to talk and express her thoughts with her fingers. The arrival of Anne Sullivan on March 3, 1887 was the beginning of Helen Keller's second life. But Helen Keller's third life is the most important and the dearest to her heart -- her tireless efforts over the past four decades in creating better understanding of the deaf and the blind everywhere on earth, and in raising money to help them. - p. 7-8.