At the turn of the twentieth century there
was an asylum in the suburbs of Boston which dealt with severely mentally retarded and
disturbed individuals. One of the patients as a girl who was simply called Little Annie.
She was totally unresponsive to others in the asylum. The staff tried everything they
could to help her, yet without success. Finally she was confined to a cell in the basement
of the asylum and given up as hopeless. But a beautiful Christian woman worked at the
asylum, and she believed that every one of God's creatures needed love, concern and care.
So she decided to spend her lunch hours in front of Little Annie's cell, reading to her
and praying that God would free her from her prison of silence. Day after day the
Christian woman came to Little Annie's door and read, but the little girl made no
response. Months went by. The woman tried to talk with Little Annie, but it was like
talking to an empty cell. She brought little tokens of food for the girt but they were
never received.
Then one day a brownie was missing from the plate which the caring woman retrieved from
Little Annie's cell. Encouraged, she continued to read to her and pray for her. Eventually
the little girl began to answer the woman through the bars of her cell.
Soon the woman convinced the doctors that Little Annie needed a second chance at
treatment. They brought her up from the basement and continued to work with her. Within
two years, Little Annie was told that she could leave the asylum and enjoy a normal life.
But she chose not to leave. She was so grateful for the love and attention she was
given by the dedicated Christian woman that she decided to stay and love others as she had
suffered.
Nearly half a century later, the Queen of England held a special ceremony to honor one
of America's most inspiring women, Helen Keller. When asked to what she would attribute
her success at overcoming the dual handicap of blindness and deafness, Helen Keller
replied, "If it hadn't been for Ann Sullivan, I wouldn't be here today."
Ann Sullivan, who tenaciously loved and believed in an incorrigible blind and deaf girl
named Helen Keller, was Little Annie. Because one selfless Christian woman in the dungeon
of an insane asylum believed that a hopeless little girl needed God's love, the world
received the marvelous gift of Helen Keller.
From: Becoming the Spiritual Person You Want to be by Dr. Neil T. Anderson