"Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence." ~ Helen Keller
An inspiration to generations, Helen Adams Keller (1880-1968) was blind, deaf, and mute after an illness at age nineteen months. She did not utter her first word until she was seven.
"Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much," she believed.
Her extraordinary teacher and life-long friend, Anne Mansfield Sullivan (1866-1936) was nearly blind herself and used her gift of tenacity and spirit to force Helen's mind from the dark.
Hour upon hour, Sullivan signed words into Helen's hand until the word W-A-T-E-R burst through. "That living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy, set it free!" Keller understood and learned quickly. Touching a person's face, feeling the vibrations in the throat, and "reading" what they said as they spoke.
With optimism and inspiration, Helen Keller became a living miracle, graduating cum laude from Radcliffe College in 1904. She inspired the world as a writer for United Press International and other publications. She also was a powerful public speaker.
An advocate of social reform for the treatment of the handicapped, Keller once said, "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart."
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