There were no days or nights in Helen’s world. She could not see the sun rising each morning or the moon with its silver glow at night. She could not hear birds sing or crickets chirp. She lived in silent darkness. Imagine if you could not hear, see, or speak. How would you let people understand you? How would you “talk”?
Helen was smart. She followed her mother around everywhere. She clung to her skirts. Helen noticed different smells. She felt vibrations as people and things moved around her. Over time, Helen found ways to communicate. She made up signals to tell people what she wanted.
There were not many schools for deaf or blind children when Helen was little. There were none where she lived in Alabama. At schools for the deaf, children learned to make signs with their hands. The signs stood for words.
By the time she turned five, Helen had made up over fifty signs of her own. She pulled at her mother or her father. That meant “come with me.” She shoved them away when she wanted them to go. For “bread,” Helen acted out cutting a slice and buttering it. To say “small,” Helen pinched a small bit of the skin of her hand. Helen spread her fingers wide and brought them together to mean “large.” Helen also had signs for everyone in her family. For Captain, or Father, Helen mimed glasses and for her mother, she pulled her hair into a knot at the back of her head.
The family tried to understand Helen, but it was not easy. She had a terrible temper. When Helen did not get her way, she threw a tantrum.
Helen knew that people talked with their lips. She tried moving her lips, but no sounds came out. She did not understand why. It made Helen so mad. She kicked and screamed with frustration. Her tantrums stopped only after she became too tired to scream anymore.
Helen’s parents did not know how to handle her. Relatives told them that Helen should no longer live at home. She should be “put away.” That meant putting Helen in a hospital or home for the blind and deaf. In the nineteenth century, people with handicaps were often sent away like this. Once they were sent away, their family often did not see them again. But Mrs. Keller did not want to do that to her daughter. She knew her daughter was smart. But how could anyone teach her?
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