WONDERFUL WOMEN "I was like a ship lost in a thick fog": The life story of the unique Helen Keller

"I am blind, but I see, I am deaf, but I hear! Before I started my education, Helen wrote, "I was like a ship lost in the thick fog searching the shore, but I did not have a compass to reach it."

Helen Keller was the first blind and deaf graduate, an established writer, political activist, and tireless women's rights activist who led her to meetings with presidents, statesmen, and dignitaries from around the world, including Winston Churchill and Jawaharlal Nehru.

Photo: Profimedia

Born June 27, 1880, in Alabama, she was deaf and blind from the age of 19 months due to meningitis, which she barely survived, but thanks to her iron will she learned to write and speak, and graduated in 1904. "The best and most beautiful things can not be seen or heard, but are felt with the heart." will write Helen Keller in one of her books.

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Another woman owes Helen's success, Ann Sullivan, the teacher who held Helen by the hand as a child and stayed with her for more than forty years. Ann herself had a vision problem as a child, at the age of five she suffered from trachoma which left her partially blind and without the ability to read and write. Sullivan used special methods to teach Helen to read and write, which she had previously experienced, and Keller would describe those experiences later in her autobiography, The Story of My Life., which became a bestseller.

Photo: Niday Picture Library / Alamy / Alamy / Profimedia

At the age of 14, Keller and Sullivan moved to New York, where she attended a special school for the deaf and devoted herself to teaching speech. Then comes the incredible Cambridge enrollment, and her education was paid for by her admirer, Mark Twain, who said Helen was the greatest heroine in history.

Statue of Helen Keller in Washington, DC / EPA / MATTHEW CAVANAUGH

"Every struggle is a victory," notes the great writer, who explains that she had setbacks and crises during her schooling, but always got up and kept moving forward. She specialized in English literature, and during her studies her first works were created. She graduated with the highest grades and became the first deaf person to receive a degree. But she did not stop there - she earned a doctorate in philosophy, becoming one of the most popular icons of American culture that speaks as many as three languages ​​- English, French and German.

Photo: Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy / Alamy / Profimedia

She has been involved in a number of progressive activities for the support and rights of persons with disabilities, and over the years has become a skilled speaker. In 1915 he founded the non-profit organization Helen Keller International, which operated in 39 countries. Known around the world for her steely will, she was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the highest civilian awards in the United States. Later, she became involved in politics, joining the Socialist Party, taking the side of the working class and founding a union that operated in many countries around the world. Because of her leftist ideas, the FBI kept a thick record of her. Throughout her life, Keller worked for the American Foundation for the Blind, traveling and lecturing.

Photo: Niday Picture Library / Alamy / Alamy / Profimedia

She retired from the public eye in the early 60s after surviving a stroke. She died on June 1, 1968 at the age of 88. Towards the end of her unusual and exciting life, she declared: I am blind, but I see; I'm deaf, but I'm listening.

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