Through love, she discovered that her inner world was more important than the outer world that she could neither see nor hear. Happiness, she discovered, began on the inside, not the outside. "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched," she learned. "They must be felt with the heart."
In her inner world she also discovered a God Who loved her, and her faith in God let her experience that God was her Everlasting Light. Her outer darkness remained, but God set and lit the lamp of faith. Faith which illuminated her inner world, enlightened her vision so she could become a prophetic voice to the society she was both part of and stood apart from. Faith which propelled her forward so that she could understand that her suffering and trials strengthened her soul, clarified her precious inner vision, and helped her achieve success.
Helen was born in 1880 in Alabama, her father a former Captain in the Confederate army. She had a normal infancy until at nineteen months either scarlet fever or meningitis robbed her of the ability to see and hear. She did not give up: by the age of six she had developed over sixty home signs to use with her family. When she was seven, her parents hired twenty year old Anne Sullivan, an educator and herself visually impaired, to be her governess and tutor. Later she became Helen's constant companion. Anne taught her sign language; the two would "speak" into each other's palms.
But Helen was determined to communicate with others as normally as possible, and her family convinced Sarah Fuller, a leading educator and Principal of the Horace Mann School for the Deaf, to give her speech lessons so Helen could, as she begged, "speak with her mouth." As Sarah spoke to her, an excited Helen would place her hands on the woman's face, on her lips, in her mouth, feel her tongue, so she could determine the movements that made vowels, consonants, words. Later in life, sensitive to the vibrations of sound, she would place her fingertips on a resonant tabletop to experience music being played by a quartet nearby.
Hungering to learn, she attended the Perkins Institute for the Blind, the Humason School for the Deaf, and eventually Radcliffe College. Good people who knew her or of her helped with tuition. She learned to read braille and written sign language. She developed a deep gratitude for the goodness of many people. But her education, constant reading, and own experience with suffering because of her disabilities sensitized her to many other people's massive apathy and indifference to those suffering in many ways.
She set herself a difficult task and told herself to persevere. For she had become convinced that her own experiences had prepared her to speak out for those who did not have a voice. She became a world-wide speaker, writer, advocate and fund-raiser for the blind, and those with disabilities. But she also spoke out in support of women's suffrage, pacifism, and labor rights.
In 1911, she wrote " The country is governed for the richest, for the corporations, the bankers, the land speculators, and for the exploiters of labor. The majority of mankind are working people. So long as their fair demands - the ownership and control of their livelihoods - are set at naught, we can have neither men's rights nor women's rights."
Helen met every President from Grover Cleveland to Lyndon B. Johnson. She counted many famous people among her friends: Alexander Graham Bell, Charlie Chaplin, and Mark Twain. But romantic love eluded her. She had one short relationship with a young man, but it was heavily discouraged by Anne Sullivan. The society of Helen's time considered it highly inappropriate for someone with disabilities to engage in romantic behavior.
Yet, Helen was content with the love and support and accomplishments her life had given her: "Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose....When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another."
One constant source of hurt always remained. In spite of her tremendous optimism and drive, she continually mourned that she could not see, could not hear. Only God, her Everlasting Light, the Divine Whisper of Love in her inner ear, gave her unflagging peace and hope.
She said once "For three things I thank God every day of my life: thanks that he has vouchsafed me knowledge of His works; deep thanks that He has set in my darkness the lamp of faith; deep, deepest thanks that I have another life to look forward to - a life joyous with light and flowers and heavenly song."
For we who struggle with our own dark nights, Helen is a luminous reflection of God's Everlasting Light. She is a permanently lit candle whose example can ignite our souls with faith, optimism, courage, and unfailing love.
You can read her autobiography, "The Story of My Life," or see the play/movie "The Miracle Worker," or even see a clip of Helen speaking on YouTube.