The real life story of Nellie Zimmerman, a deaf and blind woman living in Ohio in the 1900s, who was wrongly committed to a psychiatric hospital for nearly two decades. (Book Adaptation)

SYNOPSIS:

NELLIE ZIMMERMAN is raised by her father and becomes totally deaf by age 8 due to childhood illnesses. They learn to fingerspell when her sight begins to fail in her late teens, and she learns Braille before she’s totally blind at age 22. Just before her 30th birthday her father dies and her rich and stimulating life ends.

Nellie is shuffled between family members who never learned to communicate with her and nursing homes for years before her tantrums from isolation land her in a state hospital. A college student and a deaf hospital volunteer discover her hiding under a sheet after 19 years of silence and wage a legal battle for her release. At age 71 Nellie moves into a boarding house, but her tantrums get her evicted.

A young, hearing impaired woman, EMILY STREET, takes Nellie in and enrolls her in college. They hit the lecture circuit and teach deaf and blind boys at a group home. When Emily falls in love, Nellie, jealous and frightened over what will happen to her, tries everything in her power to prevent the marriage. Emily is forced to find her a new home. At age 75, Nellie finds freedom and romantic love.

Worldfest-Houston International Film Festival - Gold. Wiki Screenplay Contest - Finalist. Table Read My Screenplay - Top 100.

About the book authors:

Rosezelle Boggs-Qualls, a social worker for more than 30 years, has a degree in Social Work from Wright State University where she did her Graduate work in Applied Behavioral Sciences. Due to childhood diseases, she lost most of her hearing by the time she was nine.

Dr. Daryl C. Greene is an Ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, a graduate of Western Michigan University, and Andover-Newton Theological School. He completed his Doctoral Studies at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Due to a rare and progressive neurological disease, he began to lose central vision at the age of six and was legally blind by the time he graduated from high school.