The Story of My Life: With her letters (1887-1901) and a supplementary account of her education, including passages from the reports and letters of her teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, by John Albert MacyKeller, Helen
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The Story of My Life: With her letters (1887-1901) and a supplementary account of her education, including passages from the reports and letters of her teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, by John Albert Macy
Keller, Helen
Deafblind women -- United States -- Biography; Keller, Helen, 1880-1968
We are just back from church. Captain Keller said at breakfast this
morning that he wished I would take Helen to church. The Presbytery
would be there in a body, and he wanted the ministers to see Helen. The
Sunday-school was in session when we arrived, and I wish you could have
seen the sensation Helen's entrance caused. The children were so pleased
to see her at Sunday-school, they paid no attention to their teachers,
but rushed out of their seats and surrounded us. She kissed them all,
boys and girls, willing or unwilling. She seemed to think at first
that the children all belonged to the visiting ministers; but soon she
recognized some little friends among them, and I told her the ministers
didn't bring their children with them. She looked disappointed and said,
"I'll send them many kisses." One of the ministers wished me to ask
Helen, "What do ministers do?" She said, "They read and talk loud to
people to be good." He put her answer down in his note book. When it
was time for the church service to begin, she was in such a state of
excitement that I thought it best to take her away; but Captain Keller
said, "No, she will be all right." So there was nothing to do but stay.
It was impossible to keep Helen quiet. She hugged and kissed me, and the
quiet-looking divine who sat on the other side of her. He gave her his
watch to play with; but that didn't keep her still. She wanted to show
it to the little boy in the seat behind us. When the communion service
began, she smelt the wine, and sniffed so loud that every one in the
church could hear. When the wine was passed to our neighbour, he was
obliged to stand up to prevent her taking it away from him. I never was
so glad to get out of a place as I was to leave that church! I tried
to hurry Helen out-of-doors, but she kept her arm extended, and every
coat-tail she touched must needs turn round and give an account of the
children he left at home, and receive kisses according to their number.
Everybody laughed at her antics, and you would have thought they were
leaving a place of amusement rather than a church. Captain Keller
invited some of the ministers to dinner. Helen was irrepressible. She
described in the most animated pantomime, supplemented by spelling, what
she was going to do in Brewster. Finally she got up from the table and
went through the motion of picking seaweed and shells, and splashing
in the water, holding up her skirts higher than was proper under the
circumstances. Then she threw herself on the floor and began to swim
so energetically that some of us thought we should be kicked out of our
chairs! Her motions are often more expressive than any words, and she is
as graceful as a nymph.
I wonder if the days seem as interminable to you as they do to me. We
talk and plan and dream about nothing but Boston, Boston, Boston. I
think Mrs. Keller has definitely decided to go with us, but she will not
stay all summer.
May 15, 1888.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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