The Life of Helen Keller When Helen Keller was two years old she came down with a fever the doctors could do nothing about. When it finally left her, it took with it, her ability to see and hear. After that everybody that knew her was hopeless and didn't quite know what to do with little Helen. That was until Ms. Anne Sullivan came to be her governess, teacher and most of all companion. Anne was blind when she was a girl from trachoma and went to the Perkins Institute for the Blind. She had an operation that restored her sight. She never forgot how it was to be blind so she decided she would help Helen. There was a girl who Anne went to Perkins with