Kay Powell:

Okay, Okay. Number one. A storm blows a tree down into my house and kills me in my bed. Well, I was a Red Cross disaster volunteer for, I don't know, 20-something years, and we have a lot of tornadoes come through here, and the one image that sticks in my mind is the woman who lived alone, was in bed when the tornado hit. A pine tree or a tree fell on her and killed her in her bed. And when the neighbors found her it took about five of them with chainsaws to cut that tree off of her and get her out of the bed.

Number two. Aging single

Number three. As I deal with diminished capacity, will I find workarounds?

Number four. Dealing with my steel trap mind turning into a sieve. Having a retentive memory has been important to me all my life. Whether it was while I was a reporter, whatever I was doing, what I knew and retained was just a key part of my success.

Number five. Staying relevant and creative. I play bridge every Thursday since I retired with a bunch of women from Smyrna, Georgia. I live in Cobb County and I'm 74. The oldest member of that group turns 94 this week. They are up on so many things. They know a lot more that’s going on than I do. And the 93 year old, her phone rang one day and she reached inside her brassiere and pulled out her phone. I said, “Oh my Lord, you’re just like the children in the clubs, carrying your phone rammed in your bra.” So they know what’s going on.  

Number six. The only time I was literally frozen in fear I was approaching the Toronto CN Tower glass floor. It's over eleven hundred feet up in the air and I approached this huge glass floor that everybody else was enjoying, sashayed up to it and went to put my foot down on it, and just froze in place.

Number seven. Will hate, meanness, physical and verbal attacks, cheating to win at any cost, and bullying continue? It sort of started, I think, with the New Gingrich era in politics, and Karl Rove, and people like that who saw this as a winning combination. To attack anybody, just about, who isn't a white male just like them. It’s just mean. And then there's the entire spectrum of women's issues. Why are we losing ground? I see abortion rights, the right to choose, we're losing ground all over the place there.

Number nine. I always, from almost the time I had breasts, just was consumed with fear that I would have breast cancer and die. And I was diagnosed with lobular carcinoma in situ, and I was in a cancer support group where everybody who was a patient that was in that group died, but I didn't. And all of a sudden anymore, that just doesn't consume me. I've had it. I've survived it. Moving on.

Number ten. Rewriting my will to make assets distribution fair. I only have two nephews, and since I don't have any children, how can I structure my will to make things even out for both of them in the long run? And when I try to discuss this with my sisters they say I'm trying to control them from the grave. Well, I don't see anything wrong with that.

My name is Kay Powell and these are 10 things that scare me.