Nearly a century ago, in...
Illustration
Nearly a century ago, in a mental institution outside Boston, a young girl known as "Little Annie" was locked into a room that could only be called a dungeon. The doctors had tried every treatment they could possibly find; this case of insanity, they were convinced, was incurable.
Alternating between fits of uncontrollable rage, long periods of turning inward upon herself, and communicating with no one, Little Annie was consigned to a kind of living death, in a tiny cubicle that received little light and even less hope.
It happened that one of the staff of the institution was an elderly nurse. She alone declined to give up on Little Annie. The nurse took to bringing her lunch downstairs to the hallway outside Annie's cell, and talking to her through the door as she ate. The patient made no response, gave no sign she even heard, but still the nurse came. One day, the visitor brought some brownies, and left them by the food-slot in the door; the next day they were gone.
From that time on, the doctors noticed a change in their patient. She became more responsive. In time, her fits of anger subsided altogether. Eventually, their "hopeless case" moved upstairs, and finally the doctors said she could return home.
But Annie stayed. She said she wanted to become a teacher, to help others. And she did. Years later, it was this same Annie -- Annie Sullivan -- who cared for and taught a little girl named Helen Keller, leading her out of darkness into light.
Miracles do happen. There is no darkness so intense that the light of Jesus Christ cannot penetrate it!
Alternating between fits of uncontrollable rage, long periods of turning inward upon herself, and communicating with no one, Little Annie was consigned to a kind of living death, in a tiny cubicle that received little light and even less hope.
It happened that one of the staff of the institution was an elderly nurse. She alone declined to give up on Little Annie. The nurse took to bringing her lunch downstairs to the hallway outside Annie's cell, and talking to her through the door as she ate. The patient made no response, gave no sign she even heard, but still the nurse came. One day, the visitor brought some brownies, and left them by the food-slot in the door; the next day they were gone.
From that time on, the doctors noticed a change in their patient. She became more responsive. In time, her fits of anger subsided altogether. Eventually, their "hopeless case" moved upstairs, and finally the doctors said she could return home.
But Annie stayed. She said she wanted to become a teacher, to help others. And she did. Years later, it was this same Annie -- Annie Sullivan -- who cared for and taught a little girl named Helen Keller, leading her out of darkness into light.
Miracles do happen. There is no darkness so intense that the light of Jesus Christ cannot penetrate it!
