hellen keller 1st ch. summary
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Helen Keller admits to being uncertain about her task of writing an autobiography. She fears that she may be unable to differentiate between her imagination and facts if her memories, as some important memories might have been forgotten and insignificant memories remembered.
She traces the background of her family, on both mother's and father's side. She mentions that she lived in a little house near the family house, before her illness. She had joyful memories of a pretty garden which made her happy whenever she felt sad.
As she was a first child, her birth was greeted with joy. Her mother wanted to name her Helen Everett after her own mother, but her father, rather conveniently, told the minister her name as Helen Adams. She was a very curious and energetic baby, and started speaking syllables and broken words when she was six months old.
But, after a year and a half, she fell ill because of a mysterious illness which the doctors called congestion of the stomach and brain. The whole family rejoiced when her fever left her as suddenly and mysteriously as it had come. No one was aware that the fever had robbed her ability to see and hear.