Before there was Anne Sullivan Macy, there was Helen Keller’s mother: Kate Adams Keller. This sensitive and intelligent woman fought to find help for her young deaf and blind daughter when her child was an infant. Helen always spoke fondly of her mother’s intelligence and determination and corresponded with her mother continuously once she left Alabama and lived in Massachusetts.
On Mother’s Day we honor Kate Keller for her tenacity and love. In Helen Keller’s autobiography, Helen relates an early childhood memory of being with her mother. It’s evocative and lovely. Happy Mother’s Day!
"They tell me I walked the day I was a year old. My mother had just taken me out of the bath-tub and was holding me in her lap, when I was suddenly attracted by the flickering shadows of leaves that danced in the sunlight on the smooth floor. I slipped from my mother’s lap and almost ran toward them. The impulse gone, I fell down and cried for her to take me up in her arms. "
Excerpted from The Story of My Life, 1902
Image: Helen Keller reading a book with her left hand and making the shape of a letter with her right hand. She is at the Perkins School for the Blind in Massachusetts, 1888.
