She told the doctor that Annie was a young girl who was brought there years ago because she was incorrigible—nobody could do anything with her. She'd bite and scream and throw her food at people. The doctors and nurses couldn't even examine her or anything. She’d see Annie spitting and scratching at them like an animal. She went on to say that: "I was only a few years younger than her myself and I used to think, 'I sure would hate to be locked up in a cage like that.' I wanted to help her, but I didn't have any idea what I could do. I mean, if the doctors and nurses couldn't help her, what could someone like me do? So, one night I thought I'd bake some brownies and see if I could get Annie to eat them."
"The next day I brought them in and walked carefully to her cage and said, 'Annie, I baked these brownies just for you. I'll put them right here on the floor and you can come and get them if you want.' Then I got out of there just as fast as I could because I was afraid of what she might do. She took the brownies and ate them. After that, she was just a little bit nicer to me when I was around. Sometimes she would talk to me, and I loved it when I made her laugh. The doctors and nurses got to the point where they’d have me go in to see Annie first, prepping her for the others to come in.”
After they'd been working with Annie for about a year—and she was a difficult project for them — The Perkins institute for the Blind opened its doors in the facility where she was living and eventually Annie had a complete turn around and left the institute and became a teacher. During the process of working with Annie they realized that she was partially blind and that’s part of why she was so out of control.
Annie went back to the Institute to visit, and to see what she could do to help. At first, the Director didn't say anything and then he thought about a letter he'd just received. A man had written to him about his daughter. She was absolutely unruly—almost like an animal. She was blind and deaf as well as 'deranged.' He was at his wit's end, but he didn't want to put her in an asylum. So, he wrote the Institute to ask if they knew of anyone who would come to his house and work with his daughter. And that is how Annie Sullivan became the lifelong companion of Helen Keller.
When Helen Keller received the Nobel Prize, she was asked who had the greatest impact on her life and she said, "Annie Sullivan." But Annie said, "No Helen. The woman who had the greatest influence on both our lives was a floor maid at the Tewksbury Institute." That's pretty powerful.