Helen Keller

Chapter Four Companions

This is a picture that has been colorized by Michael T. Sanders of NTICentral.org. Originally, the photograph was taken in 1899 by Alexander Graham Bell at his School of Vocal Physiology and Mechanics of Speech. In the picture is Helen Keller along with lifelong companion and teacher Anne Sullivan.

Anne Sullivan stayed as a companion to Helen Keller long after she taught her. Anne married John Macy in 1905, and her health started failing around 1914. Polly Thomson was hired to keep house. She was a young woman from Scotland who had no experience with deaf or blind people. She progressed to working as a secretary as well, and eventually became a constant companion to Keller.[24]

Keller moved to Forest Hills, Queens, together with Anne and John, and used the house as a base for her efforts on behalf of the American Foundation for the Blind.[25] "While in her thirties Helen had a love affair, became secretly engaged, and defied her teacher and family by trying to elope with the man she loved."[26]"Peter Fagan, a young Boston Herald reporter who was sent to Helen's home to act as her private secretary when lifelong companion, Anne, fell ill."[27]

Anne Sullivan died in 1936 after a coma, with Keller holding her hand.[28] Keller and Thomson moved to Connecticut. They traveled worldwide and raised funds for the blind. Thomson had a stroke in 1957 from which she never fully recovered, and died in 1960.[2] Winnie Corbally, a nurse who was originally brought in to care for Thomson in 1957, stayed on after her death and was Keller's companion for the rest of her life.[2]