Anne grew up in poverty and pain Two of her siblings died in infancy At five an eye disease left her partially blind and unable to read or write When Anne was eight her mother died from tuberculosis Shortly after her abusive father abandoned his three surviving children The youngest was sent to live with relatives but Anne and her brother Jimmie went to Tewksbury Almshouse a dilapidated overcrowded poorhouse A few months later Jimmie died At age fourteen Anne rsquo s circumstances brightened She was sent to a school for the blind where she underwent surgery to improve her [... more]