Helen Keller

This new, never before seen photo of a young Helen Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan has surfaced this week. I keep looking at it. The movie "The Miracle Worker" was one of those movies from my childhood that stayed with me, made me first aware of the beauty and importance of language between human beings, and what it would be like to try to teach language to someone totally unfamiliar with something that I took for granted. I can still see Patty Duke's face, as light finally dawns, understanding that the motions Anne was making in Helen's outstretched palm stood for the object she was showing her. Water. This is water - and her world cracked open. Her total rapture and ravenous need for learning after that moment riveted me to the screen. I was ever after fascinated by Helen, and now own a first edition of her autobiography. She became one of my unspoken heroes, someone who overcame unfathomable handicaps to not only survive, but excel in the foreign world of those who see and hear. Her story still moves me.