BIG BROTHER closed its doors for the final time tonight, wrapping up the last episode,which marked eight years of controversy, tears, shocks and laughter and plenty of fun! This year was exceptionally special, bringing a more diverse group of strangers together, then locking them away from the rest of the outside world. For one insider, it was a milestone for ALL baby boomer women across the world! Yep, the sweet 53 year old housemate, Terri [’Naughty Nanna] entered the house and with walls screaming Generation Y hormones, endured a whole eighty-five days of madness, tears, hot-flushes, roller-coaster emotions, to be  crowned BB’s 2008 winner and boy, is she so deserving of this feat! All of Australia sat on the edge of their seats in anticipation for the announcemement from Kyle & Jackie O….this year’s new hosts. The eighty-five days spent inside the mad house, with no outside connection to loved ones, TV’s, newspapers etc was indeed a test for thise remaining housemates, ages varying from the youngest, Bianca; 18, and upwards. Terri being the eldest, was bound to cop plenty from some younger members, and for the first couple of weeks, she did! Many determined NOT to have a ‘mother hen’ inside, the Y generation put her through the usual ringer any mother knows, but she never let it weigh her down, bouncing back with a feisty attitude, soon warming the cockle of their hearts.

So as the numbers decreased week-by-week, nomination after nomination, soon we were down to three! WOW! Where did that three months go??? Myself already picking favourites, when I again swore “NEVER AGAIN”…..Travis, Alice, Rory Ben and Terri. At this stage, I had clearly narrowed my choices down, guess like many others? When it was time for Travis & Alice to go, the nail-biting began! Nothing personal against Ben, he HAD to go! lol So when his name was called as third-runner-up, I leapt with joy! Here sat the final two, Terri, our 53 year old boomer and adorable Rory, the twenty year old apple of any mother’s eye, dreadlocks and all! The suspense was killing me! We met Dawson, Terri’s darling grandson and Terri’s daughter….we watched as Rory was also briefly reunited with his young brother and doting mum…the tears swelled in my heart, and eyes. This was a touching moment and I am sure not a dry eye in the entire country. As the past housemates gathered in dance, and others dropped in to catch up with the TV hosts, I anxiously washed my dishes, anything to keep me busy while we waited for the announcement from Big Brother.

Normally we see the final two inside the house, awaiting the word…..this year, our two finalists were brought out, and stood nervously before hundreds of screaming Big Brother fans while Jackie opened the envelope…..and the 2008 BIG BROTHER winner was……..TERRI!!!! Our FIRST baby boomer won 1/4 million dollars, and the hearts of Australia! I’d like to acknowledge Rory here….he was humble, polite and so excited for Terri the whole time! After all, it was Rory who predicted her win, long before this night had arrived…..CONGRATULATIONS TERRI!!

Farewell, Big Brother….

I am a proud Australian-I have a history that dates back to Ireland and the United Kingdom, part of five generations of women, I also have many interesting stories thanks to the incredible females who in one way or another, helped to shape my life. At the age of 18, I had a huge desire to trace my mother’s family tree and with much help from my Aunty, I was lucky enough to have gathered enough detail to start the ball rolling and today, have successfully completed my search! With the help of our Births/Deaths & Marriage office/s here in NSW, Victoria and Western Australia, the foundation was laid for a much more detailed search. Having access to the worldwide net an absolute bonus plus, taking me out of my homeland, and soon tracking down names in Ireland and the United Kingdom. Listing my relatives names and all neccessary information, many doors began opening in other directions, a surprise contact led to my meeting with a long lost ancestor from Western Australia! Enter, my cousin Bruce-He too had been doing the same family search, our paths crossing on one of the internet’s geneology websites! When I think about all the hundreds upon thousands who like us, track the hard yards to find just one snippet of information, I realise just how blessed we have been. It was through Bruce that I was able to obtain the above picture….his grandmother[seated on floor], sister to my great grandmother Lillian [see girl standing] -It truly is a small world, after all! My search unfortunately ended with the grandmother from Ireland, only due to the fact a fire apparently destroyed all public records back in the early 1900’s, so tracking down the rest of the family has come to a complete halt…..but I’m satisfied knowing we gave our research 110%…finding Great grandmother Jane Green, the 17 year old girl who was sentenced for stealing then shipped half way around the world to a convict settlement, a pretty big milestone and something which can now be passed down to my future female generations.

With this month of March centred around International Women, and their achievments, I didn’t want to bamboozle you with too much detail, so narrowed my article down to this. I could have listed all that we, as women have achived but there were way too many women and way too many categories. That has to tell you something right there! I hope you enjoy!
A woman’s place in history, dates back to 1848-
In the united States of America, there was a convention held for women to discuss their list of grievances.
This two day ’seminar’ set the programme for the rights of women in a society held by men.
There were twelve points of resolution, all calling for equal rights and treatment, for both women and men, in accordance of laws and voting.The decalaration was signed that day in history, marking the rights for women!
In 1850, they held their first National Women’s Rights Convention.
Many other events took place from that moment on, including the right to vote,a goal met by women of various States across the country-the right to serve as part of a jury,the movement formed for Black women,advocacy for better working conditions and wages,first birth control clinic,the fight against discrimination and so on.These women also formed  groups, organisations who paved the way for other arguments and challenged the governments with legal battles, always on behalf of another woman!

While all this was going on, in another part of the Globe one woman fought her own fight, a fight that would represent the International women’s day-

Who is Klara Zetkin? Well, I can tell you this feisty woman was responsible for organizing International Women’s Day way back in 1911.
Seems she got her own inspiration from what she learned of women in the workforce!
Klara was a German socialist, a woman’s advocate who managed to stir the European nations with her ideas, which lead to the socialist woman’s movement being formed.Women from all over marched in support She found more use for her voice by establishing the socialist’s newspaper, working as an editor for her paper, the Gleichheit.
The vast amount of women supporting her was nothing short of amazing! There were rallies and marches of protest all over Europe with the help and backing of femenist, Aleksandra Kollontai.
Klara spentmany of her later years in Russia and  went on to write several pieces on socialism. Her years studying Karl Marx having a definte impact on her own life and personal views.

I don’t know about my sisters, but studying past profiles of the hundreds upon thousands who made an impact in this world, has left me thinking that perhaps this IS the year we see a female as President?? If past records are anything to go by, ANYTHING is possible in this ‘would be’, predominantly ‘male’ world!

FYI: This link gives you some idea of the various events scheduled in my hometown of Sydney-

http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/WhatsOn/html/custom/2199-sydney-event-calendar.asp

As a woman, and a baby boomer diva, I am now writing more on romance and was recently invited to submit a small piece I’d included in a previous book, and turn it into something more. Okay, so what is more? A novella! With so much Chick Lit buzzing about the literary scenes, my publisher and I put our thinking caps on, and decided it was high time we found out what women readers, really want in a romance book?!

Thanks to the genius of SCuppari Publishing, I have my ideas already flowing and once a few loose ends elsewhere are tied up, I will be plunging deep into the romance story, “Turning Right”-

Meanwhile, we would LOVE to gather some feedback from other women, those reading romance and longing for more! Here’s your chance, especially if you are anywhere between the ages of 35+ to surf on over to Writing Edge, and fill in the online survey! Helps us, help you! We want to deliver the kind of romance fiction older women, mature women, sassy wome want to sink their teeth into! Check it out: http://writingedgemagazine.tripod.com/id174.html

If you have any queries, or would like to submit your own little piece of romance, drop us a line at enquiries@scuppari.com or magazinestaff@bigstring.com

As deputy editor for this magazine, I am open to any new ideas so put on those thinking caps ladies, let’s inspire others!

If you would like to subscribe to our magazine, stop by www.scuppari.com or www.writingedgemag.com

A cool heavy-duty canvas, cotton tote bag courtesy of Writing Edge, with your subscription order!

 

 Born: 12 May 1820 in Florence, Italy
Died: 13 August 1910 in East Wellow, England

 Florence Nightingale is best remembered for her work as a nurse during the Crimean War and her contribution towards the reform of the sanitary conditions in military field hospitals. However, what is less well known about this amazing woman is her love of mathematics, especially statistics, and how this love played an important part in her life’s work.

Named after the city of her birth, Nightingale was born at the Villa Colombia in Florence, Italy, on 12 May 1820. Her parents, William Edward Nightingale and his wife Frances Smith, were touring Europe for the first two years of their marriage. Nightingale’s elder sister had been born in Naples the year before. The Nightingales gave their first born the Greek name for the city, which was Parthenope.

William Nightingale had been born with the surname Shore but he had changed it to Nightingale after inheriting from a rich relative, Peter Nightingale of Lea, near Matlock, Derbyshire. The girls grew up in the country spending much of their time at Lea Hurst in Derbyshire. When Nightingale was about five years old her father bought a house called Embley near Romsey in Hampshire. This now meant that the family spent the summer months in Derbyshire, while the rest of the year was spent at Embley. Between these moves there were trips to London, the Isle of Wight, and to relatives.

The early education of Parthenope and Florence was placed in the hands of governesses, later their Cambridge educated father took over the responsibility himself. Nightingale loved her lessons and had a natural ability for studying. Under her father’s influence Nightingale became acquainted with the classics, Euclid, Aristotle, the Bible, and political matters.

In 1840, Nightingale begged her parents to let her study mathematics instead of:-

… worsted work and practising quadrilles,

but her mother did not approve of this idea. Although William Nightingale loved mathematics and had bequeathed this love to his daughter, he urged her to study subjects more appropriate for a woman. After many long emotional battles, Nightingale’s parents finally gave their permission and allowed her to be tutored in mathematics. Her tutors included Sylvester, who developed the theory of invariants with Cayley. Nightingale was said to be Sylvester’s most distinguished pupil. Lessons included learning arithmetic, geometry and algebra and prior to Nightingale entered nursing, she spent time tutoring children in these subjects.

Nightingale’s interest in mathematics extended beyond the subject matter. One of the people who also influenced Nightingale was the Belgium scientist Quetelet. He had applied statistical methods to data from several fields, including moral statistics or social sciences.

Religion played an important part in Nightingale’s life. Her unbiased view on religion, unusual at the time, was owed to the liberal outlook Nightingale found in her home. Although her parents were from a Unitarian background, Frances Nightingale found a more conventional denomination preferable and the girls were brought up as members of the Church of England. On 7 February 1837 Nightingale believed she heard her calling from God, whilst walking in the garden at Embley, although at this time though she did not know what this calling was.

Nightingale developed an interest in the social issues of the time, but in 1845 her family was firmly against the suggestion of Nightingale gaining any hospital experience. Until then the only nursing that she had done was looking after sick friends and relatives. During the mid-nineteenth century nursing was not considered a suitable profession for a well-educated woman. Nurses of the time were lacking in training and they also had the reputation of being coarse, ignorant women, given to promiscuity and drunkenness.

While Nightingale was on a tour of Europe and Egypt starting in 1849, with family friends Charles and Selina Bracebridge, she had the chance to study the different hospital systems. In early 1850 Nightingale began her training as a nurse at the Institute of St Vincent de Paul in Alexandria, Egypt, which was a hospital run by the Roman Catholic Church. Nightingale visited Pastor Theodor Fliedner’s hospital at Kaiserswerth, near Düsseledorf, in July 1850. Nightingale returned to Kaiserswerth, in 1851, to undertake 3 months of nursing training at the Institute for Protestant Deaconesses and from Germany she moved to a hospital in St Germain, near Paris, run by the Sisters of Mercy. On returning to London in 1853 Nightingale took up the unpaid position as the Superintendent at the Establishment for Gentlewomen during Illness at No 1 Harley Street.

March of 1854 brought the start of the Crimean War, with Britain, France and Turkey declaring war on Russia. Although the Russians were defeated at the battle of the Alma River, on 20 September 1854, The Times newspaper criticised the British medical facilities. In response to this Nightingale was asked in a letter from her friend Sidney Herbert, the British Secretary for War, to become a nursing administrator to oversee the introduction of nurses to military hospitals. Her official title was Superintendent of the Female Nursing Establishment of the English General Hospitals in Turkey. Nightingale arrived in Scutari, an Asian suburb of Constantinople, (now Istanbul), with 38 nurses on 4 November 1854

… her zeal, her devotion, and her perseverance would yield to no rebuff and to no difficulty. She went steadily and unwearyingly about her work with a judgement, a self-sacrifice, a courage, a tender sympathy, and withal a quiet and unostentatious demeanour that won the hearts of all who were not prevented by official prejudices from appreciating the nobility of her work and character.

Although being female meant Nightingale had to fight against the military authorities at every step, she went about reforming the hospital system. With conditions which resulted in soldiers lying on bare floors surrounded by vermin and unhygienic operations taking place it is not surprising that, when Nightingale first arrived in Scutari, diseases such as cholera and typhus were rife in the hospitals. This meant that injured soldiers were 7 times more likely to die from disease in hospital, than on the battlefield. Whilst in Turkey, Nightingale collected data and organised a record keeping system, this information was then used as a tool to improve city and military hospitals. Nightingale’s knowledge of mathematics became evident when she used her collected data to calculate the mortality rate in the hospital. These calculations showed that an improvement of the sanitary methods employed would result in a decrease in the number of deaths. By February 1855 the mortality rate had dropped from 60% to 42.7%. Through the establishment of a fresh water supply as well as using her own funds to buy fruit, vegetables and standard hospital equipment, the mortality rate in the spring had dropped further to 2.2%.

Nightingale used this statistical data to create her Polar Area Diagram, or “coxcombs” as she called them. These were used to give a graphical representation of the mortality figures during the Crimean War (1854 - 56).

The area of each coloured wedge, measured from the centre as a common point, is in proportion to the statistic it represents. The blue outer wedges represent the deaths from:-

… preventable or mitigable zymotic diseases

or in other words contagious diseases such as cholera and typhus. The central red wedges show the deaths from wounds. The black wedges in between represent deaths from all other causes. Deaths in the British field hospitals reached a peak during January 1855, when 2,761 soldiers died of contagious diseases, 83 from wounds and 324 from other causes making a total of 3,168. The army’s average manpower for that month was 32,393. Using this information, Nightingale computed a mortality rate of 1,174 per 10,000 with 1,023 per 10,000 being from zymotic diseases. If this rate had continued, and troops had not been replaced frequently, then disease alone would have killed the entire British army in the Crimea.

These unsanitary conditions, however, were not only limited to military hospitals in the field. On her return to London in August 1856, four months after the signing of the peace treaty, Nightingale discovered that soldiers during peacetime, aged between 20 and 35 had twice the mortality rate of civilians. Using her statistics, she illustrated the need for sanitary reform in all military hospitals. While pressing her case, Nightingale gained the attention of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as well as that of the Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston. Her wishes for a formal investigation were granted in May 1857 and led to the establishment of the Royal Commission on the Health of the Army. Nightingale hid herself from public attention, and became concerned for the army stationed in India. In 1858, for her contributions to army and hospital statistics Nightingale became the first woman to be elected to be a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society.

In 1860, the Nightingale Training School and Home for Nurses based at St Thomas’ Hospital in London, opened with 10 students. It was financed by the Nightingale Fund, a fund of public contributions set up during Nightingale’s time in the Crimea and had raised a total of 50,000. It was based around two principles. Firstly that the nurses should have practical training in hospitals specially organised for that purpose. The other was that the nurses should live in a home fit to form a moral life and discipline. Due to the foundation of this school Nightingale had achieved the transformation of nursing from its disreputable past into a responsible and respectable career for women. Nightingale responded to the British war office’s request for advice on army medical care in Canada and was also a consultant to the United States government on army health during the American Civil War.

For most of the remainder of her life Nightingale was bedridden due to an illness contracted in the Crimea, which prevented her from continuing her own work as a nurse. This illness did not stop her, however, campaigning to improve health standards; she published 200 books, reports and pamphlets. One of these publications was a book entitled Notes on Nursing (1860). This was the first textbook specifically for use in the teaching of nurses and was translated into many languages. Nightingale’s other published works included Notes on Hospitals (1859) and Notes on Nursing for the Labouring Classes (1861). Florence Nightingale deeply believed that her work had been her calling from God. In 1874 she became an honorary member of the American Statistical Association and in 1883 Queen Victoria awarded Nightingale the Royal Red Cross for her work. She also became the first woman to receive the Order of Merit from Edward VII in 1907.

Nightingale died on 13 August 1910 aged 90. She is buried at St Margaret’s Church, East Wellow, near Embley Park. Nightingale never married, although this was not from lack of opportunity. She believed, however, that God had decided she was one whom he:-

… had clearly marked out … to be a single woman.

The Crimean Monument, erected in 1915 in Waterloo Place, London, was done so in honour of the contribution Florence Nightingale had made to this war and the health of the army.

Article by: J J O’Connor and E F Robertson based on a project by Suzanne Davidson.

October 2003

 

An unlikely chain of circumstances led Fossey to study the mountain gorilla and to her eventual demise high in the fog enshrouded mountains of eastern Africa. Born in San Francisco on January 16, 1932, Fossey was fascinated with animals from an early age. She entered the University of California at Davis to study pre-veterinary medicine but found it difficult to master courses in chemistry and physics. Instead she completed a B.A. in 1954 from San Jose State University in occupational therapy. In 1956 she took a job at Kosair Crippled Children’s Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky, where she could pursue her interest in horses during her free time.http://articles.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_gx5221/is_2005/ai_n19136575BOOK~The Dark Romance of Dian Fossey / Harold TP HayesPublished: January 25, 2007

She was called “the woman who lives alone on the mountains,” and the pictures in National Geographic and the book and movie “Gorillas in the Mist” depicted her as a courageous woman with an all-consuming passion to save the mountain gorillas from extinction.“The Dark Romance of Dian Fossey” by Harold T. P. Hayes shows another side of her life.Some natives thought of her as a witch; others saw her as a brilliant scientist or a half-mad eccentric.Growing up in a rather dysfunctional family situation, she wandered, only partly successfully, from place to place and was eventually taken in by the Henry family of Louisville, Kentucky. While there, Dian listened to Louis Leaky lecture and made a friend, more impulsive than herself, who had been to Africa and taken gorilla pictures. This drew her to Africa.

Fossey studied as a preveterinary student in her undergraduate work, and spent seven years as director of occupational therapy in a Louisville, Kentucky hospital.

She developed an interest in mountain gorillas, and wanted to see them in their natural habitat. Her first visit to the mountain gorillas came when she went in 1963 on a seven-week safari. She met with Mary and Louis Leakey before traveling to Zaire. She returned to Kentucky and her job.

Three years later, Louis Leakey visited her in Kentucky to urge her to follow through on her desire to study the gorillas. He told her — she later found it it was to test her commitment — to have her appendix removed prior to moving to Africa to spend an extended time studying the gorillas.

After raising funds, she returned to Africa, visited Jane Goodall to learn from her, and then made her way to Zaire and the home of the mountain gorillas.

She earned the trust of the gorillas, but human beings were another matter. She was taken into custody in Zaire, escaped to Uganda, and moved to Rwanda to continue her work.

By techniques she developed, especially imitation of the gorilla behavior, she was again accepted as an observor by a group of mountain gorillas there. She discovered and publicized their peaceful nature and their nurturing family relationships.

From 1970-1974, Fossey went to England to get her doctorate at Cambridge University, in zoology. Her dissertation summarized her work thus far with the gorillas.

Returning to Africa, she began taking in research volunteers who extended the work she’d been doing. When one of her favorite gorillas, Digit, was killed, she began a very public campaign against poachers who killed gorillas.

In 1980, she returned to the US to teach at Cornell University. In 1983 she published Gorillas in the Mist, a popularized version of her studies. Saying she preferred gorillas to people, she returned to Africa and to her gorilla research, as well as to her anti-poaching activity.

On December 26, 1985, her body was discovered near the research center. Presumably, she’d been killed by the poachers she’d fought.

On her gravestone: “No one loved gorillas more…

Note: Our very own Baby Boomer Diva;Sigourney Weaver, brought the story of this remarkable woman’s plight to the world when she starred as Dian Fossey, in the beautiful movie; “Gorillas in the Mist”-A life ended too soon. A life’s work that endures. The inspiring true story of Dian Fossey

As she moved around the table

Her hands did all the walking

Grabbing at food to fill her mouth

While other mouths did all the talking 

A silent observer sat and watched

Appalled by the shroud of ignorance

She did not bother to follow their rules

For her heart saw and shouted deliverance! 

An Irish temper that still had strength

No pity would she allow

She would break the silence that bound this mouth

She would reach this child somehow 

The mother cried and fought her plans

The father ruled with his iron fist

To reach the child and give her words

In his words this simply did not exist! 

The napkin folded gave a glimmer of hope

Even though each day be just like night

A persistent struggle to set this child free

 With the gift of ‘sign’, she gave her sight!

 Dedicated to Helen Keller- 

Debbie Stevens ã2007

 As a child, I was blessed to have had the BEST school teacher any child could hope for-My mother.

What school skipped over, mum filled in, and the following article about the incredible woman, Sister Kenny, was just one of many lessons taught. Whenever i hear the word ‘polio’, I immediately associate it with the following story. All information courtesy of To Catch A Killer-The search for the vaccine to prevent Poliomyelitis

Elizabeth Kenny was born in Warialda, New South Wales, Australia in 1886.  As a youngster in New South Wales—and later in Queensland—she was very active.  When she was in her teens, she broke her wrist during a fall from her horse.  Her doctor, Aeneas MacDonald, showed her textbook diagrams of the bones and muscles and how they worked.  She was fascinated.  She tried to borrow a skeleton, but was unable to, so she rigged one of her own from ropes and pulleys.

She became a bush nurse, traveling through the Australian outback, treating anyone who couldn’t get to a doctor.  She did everything a physician might do, from setting bones to delivering babies.

In 1911, Kenny arrived at a farm to treat a young girl.  She found the girl crippled.  Kenny had never seen anything like this.  She communicated with Dr. MacDonald, asking for advice.  He responded, “It sounds like Infantile Paralysis.  There’s no known treatment, so do the best you can.”

Kenny did.  Drawing on her knowledge of the musculoskeletal system, she applied hot packs to the girl’s spasming muscles.  The little girl recovered.  Of the twenty children in the district, the six that Kenny treated survived without complications.

When World War I broke out, Kenny joined the Australian Medical Corps.  It was then that she earned the title “Sister.” She traveled between Europe and Australia on hospital ships and was wounded in the leg by shrapnel while working at the front.

Kenny returned to Australia after the war and continued to care for patients.  She also invented a stretcher designed to transport people in shock.  It was called the Sylvia Stretcher, after the young patient for whom it was designed.  Kenny patented the stretcher and earned money from the royalties for many years.  In 1933, she used these earnings to open her own clinic for the treatment of polio patients in Townsville, Queensland.

Kenny’s method brought her into controversy with the medical authorities in Australia.  Common knowledge stated that the stronger muscles pulled on the weakened or paralyzed muscles and created the characteristic poliomyelitic deformities.  The accepted practice was to splint the extremities and hold them rigid.  Kenny believed that the practice actually produced both the deformities and paralysis.  She used hot packs to reduce muscle spasms and the pain they caused.  (Although a polio patient lost motor nerves, their sensory nerves were not affected, and they were frequently in extreme pain. Imagine having a leg cramp for several weeks.)  She also moved the patient’s extremities as if guiding them through physical therapy.  Although the patient couldn’t work the muscles themselves, the motion helped.

In 1940, Sister Kenny and her adopted daughter, Mary, came to the United States.  As in Australia, she and her methods were not readily accepted by the American medical community.  To some extent, this may have been due to her physical appearance.  At 5′8″ tall, 154 pounds, wearing large feathered hats that some said made her look like Admiral Lord Nelson, she was an imposing figure in a society that expected women to be quiet and demure.  To her patients, however, her physical appearance gave them comfort; she looked like a woman who could take on the dread poliovirus.

She did not let herself be deterred by opposition.  Eventually, she was allowed to present at the University of Minnesota.  And although her methods were never subjected to strict scientific study, most agreed that the patients in her care did better than those who were splinted.  In fact, in the first year after her methods gained wide-spread use, the incidence of residual paralysis dropped from 85% to 15%. Her methods were so successful that people were able to ignore her other controversial ideas, such as her belief that polio was a disease of the muscles rather than the nervous system, and her discouragement of the use of the iron lung except in cases of bulbar (respiratory) polio.

In 1942, Kenny established the Sister Kenny Institute in Minneapolis. In part because of the controversy surrounding her theories, the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis never supported the Institute, although they did fund both the training of Kenny therapists in at the University of Minnesota and the staffing of therapists in polio wards.

Years later, tragedy struck again in such awful irony with one more sister, suffering the same ‘curse’….on holiday by the sea, she too suffered heart failure and drowned! Janet spent time committed to Mental Institutions, almost a decade of her life. Here she underwent such torture ’proceedure’ being subjected to [traditionally prescribed] ’shock-therapy’, and all the while because doctors had totally misdiagnosed the reason for her ‘unusual’ behaviour.

Her remaining sister suffered a stroke, her uncle cut his own throat while a cousin shot his lover, her parents, then turned the gun on himself. Janet Frame somehow managed to rise above it all, this crumbling world around her which seemed doomed with tales of sorrow, a place she sometimes felt trapped by I think. Out she came, the caterpillar now a glorious butterfly, flying to greater heights and conqering her own fears by writing.

janet went on to publish a stirng of poetry books, and other amazing stories. Many based upon her own life, she was by far, an author beyond her time, and a true inspiration to so many others, incluidng myself.

 

PART ONE 

 Photo courtesy: American Foundation for the blind

Courtesy http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/publicwebsite/public_keller.hcsp

Helen Adams Keller was born on 27 June 1880 in Tuscumbia, a small rural town in Northwest Alabama, USA. The daughter of Captain Arthur Henley Keller and Kate Adams Keller she was born with full sight and hearing.

Kate Keller was a tall, statuesque blond with blue eyes. She was some twenty years younger than her husband Captain Keller, a loyal southerner who had proudly served in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War.

The house they lived in was a simple, white, clapboard house built in 1820 by Helen’s grandparents. At the time of Helen’s birth the family were far from wealthy with Captain Keller earning a living as both a cotton plantation owner and the editor of a weekly local newspaper, the “North Alabamian”. Helen’s mother, as well as working on the plantation, would save money by making her own butter, lard, bacon and ham.

Helen falls ill

But Helen’s life was to change dramatically. In February 1882, when Helen was nineteen months old, she fell ill. To this day the nature of her ailment remains a mystery. The doctors of the time called it “brain fever”, whilst modern day doctors think it may have been scarlet fever or meningitis.

Whatever the illness, Helen was, for many days, expected to die. When, eventually, the fever subsided, Helen’s family rejoiced believing their daughter to be well again.

However, Helen’s mother soon noticed how her daughter was failing to respond when the dinner bell was rang or when she passed her hand in front of her daughter’s eyes.

It thus became apparent that Helen’s illness had left her both blind and deaf.

The following few years proved very hard for Helen and her family. Helen became a very difficult child, smashing dishes and lamps and terrorising the whole household with her screaming and temper tantrums. Relatives regarded her as a monster and thought she should be put into an institution.

By the time Helen was six her family had become desperate. Looking after Helen was proving too much for them. Kate Keller had read in Charles Dickens’ book “American Notes” of the fantastic work that had been done with another deaf and blind child, Laura Bridgman, and travelled to a specialist doctor in Baltimore for advice. They were given confirmation that Helen would never see or hear again but were told not to give up hope, the doctor believed Helen could be taught and he advised them to visit a local expert on the problems of deaf children. This expert was Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, Bell was now concentrating on what he considered his true vocation, the teaching of deaf children.

Alexander Graham Bell suggested that the Kellers write to Michael Anagnos, director of the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind, and request that he try and find a teacher for Helen. Michael Anagnos considered Helen’s case and immediately recommended a former pupil of the institution, that woman was Anne Sullivan.

Anne Sullivan~The Journey begins

Anne Sullivan had lost the majority of her sight at the age of five. By the age of ten, her mother had died and her father deserted her. She and her brother Jimmie were sent to the poorhouse in February 1876.

Anne’s brother died in the poorhouse. It was October 1880 before Anne finally left and went to commence her education at the Perkins Institution. One summer during her time at the institute, Anne had two operations on her eyes, which led to her regaining enough sight to be able to read normal print for short periods of time.

Anne graduated from Perkins in 1886 and began to search for work. Finding work was terribly difficult for Anne, due to her poor eyesight, and when she received the offer from Michael Anagnos to work as the teacher of Helen Keller, a deaf-blind mute, although she had no experience in this area, she accepted willingly.

Helen meets Anne~The rest is history!

On 3 March 1887 Anne arrived at the house in Tuscumbia and for the first time met Helen Keller. Anne immediately started teaching Helen to finger spell. Spelling out the word “Doll” to signify a present she had brought with her for Helen. The next word she taught Helen was “Cake”. Although Helen could repeat these finger movements she could not quite understand what they meant. And while Anne was struggling trying to help her understand, she was also struggling to try and control Helen’s continuing bad behaviour.

Anne and Helen moved into a small cottage on the land of the main house to try and get Helen to improve her behaviour. Of particular concern were Helen’s table manners. She had taken to eating with her hands and from the plates of everyone at the table.

Anne’s attempts to improve Helen’s table manners and make her brush her own hair and button her shoes led to more and more temper tantrums. Anne punished these tantrums by refusing to “talk” with Helen by spelling words on her hands.

Over the coming weeks, however, Helen’s behaviour did begin to improve as a bond grew between the two. Then, after a month of Anne’s teaching, what the people of the time called a “miracle” occurred.

Helen had until now not yet fully understood the meaning of words. When Anne led her to the water pump on 5 April 1887, all that was about to change.

As Anne pumped the water over Helen’s hand , Anne spelled out the word water in the girl’s free hand. Something about this explained the meaning of words within Helen, and Anne could immediately see in her face that she finally understood.

Helen later recounted the incident:

“We walked down the path to the well-house, attracted by the fragrance of the honey-suckle with which it was covered. Someone was drawing water and my teacher placed my hand under the spout. As the cool stream gushed over one hand she spelled into the other the word water, first slowly, then rapidly. I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motions of her fingers. Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten, a thrill of returning thought, and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me.”

Helen immediately asked Anne for the name of the pump to be spelt on her hand and then the name of the trellis. All the way back to the house Helen learned the name of everything she touched and also asked for Anne’s name. Anne spelled the name “Teacher” on Helen’s hand. Within the next few hours Helen learnt the spelling of thirty new words.

Helen’s progress from then on was astonishing. Her ability to learn was far in advance of anything that anybody had seen before in someone without sight or hearing. It wasn’t long before Anne was teaching Helen to read, firstly with raised letters and later with braille, and to write with both ordinary and braille typewriters.

Michael Anagnos was keen to promote Helen, one of the numerous articles on her that he wrote said of Helen that “she is a phenomenon”. These articles led to a wave of publicity about Helen with pictures of her reading Shakespeare or stroking her dog appearing in national newspapers.

Helen had become famous, and as well as again visiting Alexander Graham Bell, she visited President Cleveland at the White House. By 1890 she was living at the Perkins Institute and being taught by Anne. In March of that year Helen met Mary Swift Lamson who over the coming year was to try and teach Helen to speak. This was something that Helen desperately wanted and although she learned to understand what somebody else was saying by touching their lips and throat, her efforts to speak herself proved at this stage to be unsuccessful. This was later attributed to the fact that Helen’s vocal chords were not properly trained prior to her being taught to speak.

The Miracle Worker~A film sharing the inspiration!

It was in 1957 that “The Miracle Worker” was first performed. A drama portraying Anne Sullivan’s first success in communicating with Helen as a child, it first appeared as a live television play in the United States.

In 1959 it was re-written as a Broadway play and opened to rave reviews. It became a smash hit and ran for almost two years. In 1962 it was made into a film and the actresses playing Anne and Helen both received Oscars for their performances.

 Just one book by the remarkable Helen Keller

Ann Sullivan- Anne Bancroft

Helen Keller- Patty Duke

Note: If you have NEVER watched this gripping biography, I urge you to do so. Both Patty & Anne gave stunning performances and the movie serves as a legacy to BOTH characters, and the stars who portrayed them!