The Miracle Worker

This past weekend, Mom took "anyone who wants to go" to see the play, The Miracle Worker.  Helen Keller has long been my mother's favorite heroine.  Her senior year of high school, 1958, she gave a speech in the County Oratory contest based on Helen Keller.  She did not win, but placed 2nd against a young man (now a prominent banker in the area).  His mother took the medal that was given to her son for winning the oratory contest and gave it to my mother saying she thought she deserved it....apparently she loved Helen Keller too!  :)  

You can ask my mom about that speech today, some fifty something years later and she can still recite a paragraph or two without hesitation. In fact, Baby Girl just a few weeks ago did a social studies project on a famous Alabamian--Helen Keller, and she quoted a few lines from her Granny's speech.  Sometimes things really do come full circle. 

When I was younger, I remember going to Tuscumbia to see her birthplace, the famous water pump and watch the live play they held there.  It was wonderful.  As was the play this weekend.  My kids sat on the edge of their seats the entire show...they loved it.

Seriously, my mom adores the life of Helen Keller. So much so that it's the only time in my life I ever remember her raising her hand to strike me.  We were traveling down the highway with my MawMaw sitting up front with mom driving and myself in the backseat.  I was in elementary school and had just heard some really funny (what I thought) Helen Keller jokes.  You know them, you heard them too. Apparently they still circulate the hallways because 30 years later my kids are hearing them.  Anyway, I didn't even get the punch line out of my mouth before I saw my mom's right hand leave the steering wheel and start flailing in my direction across the seat.  I dodged under the diress and promised to never tell Helen Keller jokes again. Ever.  And I haven't.  I don't want Mama to slap me now either. :)

Since I no longer wish to corrode my brain with such trash as those jokes, I read her famous quotes instead.

A few (although she has many I adore) of my favorite Helen Keller quotes: 

• "Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it."
• "I can see, and that is why I can be happy, in what you call the dark, but which to me is golden. I can see a God-made world, not a manmade world."
• "The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision."
• "The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, they must be felt with the heart."

Helen Keller was truly was a phenomenal lady.  Her story is remarkable.  Her abilities outstanding. Her perserverance inspiring.  And my mom is a pretty great lady too. I think Helen would be proud of her as well.