The Story Of My Life

When the Keller family welcomed their daughter Helen in their family on June 27, 1880, they had no idea how she would change their lives. At 19 months of age, Helen contracted a disease which destroyed her ability to see or hear, and slowly began to develop her own home signs in order to communicate with the people around her. Her mother was inspired by the story of another deafblind woman, Laura Bridgeman, to seek out physician J. Julian Chisolm, an eye, ear, nose, and throat specialist in Baltimore. Dr. Chisolm directed the Kellers to Alexander Graham Bell who further directed them to the Perkins Institute for the Blind. Through the institute, they came into contact with a former student, Anne Sullivan, who would change Helen's life forever.