In her autobiography, The Story of My Life, Helen expressed her desire to "enrich this sketch with the names of all those who have ministered to [her] happiness." Helen loved meeting people and making new friends. Her friends had a significant impact on her life. In chapter twenty-three, the final chapter, she wrote about many of her dearest friends.

Alexander Graham Bell was a close friend to Helen. She first met him when she was six years old. He showed her kindness, and she never forgot it. She saw him many times throughout her life.

Bishop Brooks was another man who Helen met as a child. He taught her about God's love, and he spoke of God as a father figure. Helen read and researched many religious philosophies, but she "found no creed or system more soul-satisfying than Bishop Brooks's creed of love."

Helen also met the poet Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes. She recited lines from a Tennyson poem to him, and he wept.

Helen also described her friendships with Mark Twain, Mr. and Mrs. Hutton, Dr. Edward Everett Hale, and many others. She concluded her autobiography with the following words:

Thus it is that my friends have made the story of my life. In a thousand ways they have turned my limitations into beautiful privileges, and enabled me to walk serene and happy in the shadow cast by my deprivation.