Tonight, Steve and the girls and I are going to watch The Miracle Worker. You remember the movie, don’t you? The one about Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller with the climatic scene at the pump. W*A*T*E*R.
Gracie has an obsession with Helen Keller. She read her first Helen Keller biography when she was in kindergarten and since then, she’s read every book she can find about Hellen Keller that’s in her reading level. She was Helen Keller for Halloween this year. Yes, you read that correctly. My child is nothing if not unique.
This summer the girls and I headed up to Florence, Alabama to meet my sister and her girls to visit a place I read about on the internet. Oh, there’s a story there, but I’ll save it for later. Anyway, my sister arrived at the hotel before we did. When we were about twenty minutes away, she called and said, “Guess who was born just a few miles away?” For the life of me, I could not figure it out. When she told me it was Helen Keller (she was born in Tuscumbia), I was thrilled. Gracie was beyond thrilled. The next morning, even though we had big plans, we worked our schedule out so we could make a visit to Ivy Green, the home where Helen was born and the home where Annie Sullivan came and broke through the little girl’s disabilities and opened up the world of communication to her.
The tour was an absolute treat. I love historical sites anyway, but watching Gracie completely engrossed in everything about the house and the grounds was simply wonderful. The other three girls really enjoyed it, too!
Sometimes, it’s the completely unexpected adventures that turn out to be the best!
There was a framed Helen Keller quote in the living room at Ivy Green. It was such a beautiful sentiment, I thought I’d share it with you:
“They took away what should have been my eyes,
But I remembered Milton’s Paradise.
They took away what should have been my ears,
Beethoven came and wiped away my tears.
They took away what should have been my tongue,
But I talked with God when I was young.
He would not let them take away my soul…
Possessing that, I still possess the whole.”
Really, I don’t think I could ask for a better hero for my daughter to have!