What is your phobia?

My friend Mel, greengirlfromwisconsin! wrote on her blog about her phobia and then asked her readers, what is your phobia?

Here's my answer.

What's your phobia? Number one biggie: losing the people I love.

I'm thinking of this because I just received the sad news that Barbara Jean Parker passed away this morning after a long illness, and while we weren't close friends I took a grad course with her and she was a very generous writer. She was a lawyer and went on to write at least 13 mystery books...the "Suspicion " series and was twice on the best-sellers list.
There's nothing you can do in the face of death, so why fear it? Because it is the unknown. Because it means you'll be deprived of the dead person's company, laugh, smile for the rest of your own life.

So while this is not an obsessive phobia, it is, I find, a great introspective question, and an intriguing writing prompt for fiction, non-fiction and poetry.

So I thanked Mel and decided to post this on my blog as a farewell salute to a lovely scribbling lady, Barbara Parker, who knew how to sling the English and who had a handle on plot! She's in my thoughts and prayers. It was a pleasure to have known her.

In Memory of Barbara Jean Parker

The smell of pencil shavings as the sharpener spins,
The feel of the pencil in between my fingers as I write
Of the bitter taste of sadness in a mouth barely able to speak regret,
And for the sound the empty word condolence makes in this room
Void of people, void of thoughts, save my head’s reflections on
How short your time was, how well you used it.