Life used to be so simple. Grow up, get married, have children, join the Junior League. 

But now there is rampant divorce and there are women seeking careers over families and there is Judy who dropped into a world with which she is totally unfamiliar. 

"I got married young," she was telling me. "I was 18. My parents took care of me up until then, and then I had my husband. This is the first time in my life I've really been on my own. It's a little scary." 

I doubt there are very many people who aren't afraid of something. I'm afraid of snakes, dentists and airplanes when they are flying through bad weather. 

Judy is afraid of spiders. 

"I don't know why," she said. "But ever since I was a little girl, I just couldn't handle spiders. 

Up until her recent divorce her problems with spiders had not been that difficult to handle. No man to kill her spiders 

"First, I had my daddy to take care of any spiders, and then I had my husband," Judy said. "I've even had him come home from work to kill a spider for me. Or, if I saw one in a room, I would lock the door and seal the spider inside, then, when my husband came home, he would kill it for me." 

Then, the divorce. One day, Judy is there, in the house, and there is no husband nor daddy to call. 

"I know this sounds silly," she said, "but a couple of days after we separated, it occurred to me I no longer had a man to call if there was a spider in the house. I tried to rationalize. I kept thinking maybe there won't be spiders in the house anymore. But I wasn't that lucky. 

"I was walking through the living room and I looked down at the floor and crawling across the carpet was a big spider. 

"I nearly freaked out. It was the biggest, ugliest spider I had ever seen. At first I nearly panicked. But then it occurred to me that if I didn't learn how to handle this thing with spiders, I never would become a totally independent woman. Armed with broom, heels 

"I put on a pair of high heels, and I went to the kitchen and got a broom. If I couldn't kill the spider from long range, with the broom, I figured I cou ld stab it with one of the heels of my shoes. 

"Just as I was ready to swat the spider with the broom, it crawled under the door of the laundry room. I thought to myself, `I don't want to go in there with that spider,' but I knew I would never be able to go to sleep knowing there was a spider in the house. 

"I opened the door to the laundry room, slowly and the spider was right there in the middle of the room, and I swear it was staring at me, daring me to come any closer. 

"I beat the spider with the broom for fifteen minutes. Then, I stepped on it with both high heels. I wanted to make certain it was dead. 

"When the ordeal was over, and I had successfully defended myself against the spider, without a man helping me, I knew I could handle being alone. I knew I was finally an independent woman." 

Donahue is in town this week doing his shows from an Atlanta television station. I bet when he reads this he'll eat his heart out.