After a little research I have reassured myself that perhaps, I do not in fact currently suffer from arachnophobia. That’s a relief, but I still shudder when I share the same space as these eight legged creatures. I am not quite sure where these irrational emotions arise from. When I was younger I must have been very afraid of spiders. I remember that sometime between the ages of 4 and 6 years of age my father tried to cure me of my fear of spiders. He did this by placing a dead spider on the palm of my right hand. I remember him holding me tightly by the wrist and telling me spiders were nothing to be scared of. I of course disagreed and waited patiently until the poor creature was removed from my hand. And, yes I was still just a frightened of spiders. Fast forward 10 years or so, I am study for my GCSEs and burning the midnight oil, at some point, I decide that enough is enough and that I should get some sleep. Everybody else in the house has already been asleep for hours. I put away my books and start climbing the stairs but lo and behold there is a big but skinny legged spider sitting patiently on the 3rd step. I freeze and stare at this thing. Instead of moving on and walking over it, I am unable to and instead spend the night on the sofa in the family living room, such is the strength of my fear. My mother comes down the stairs in the morning is is very surprised to see me on the sofa in my day clothes and asks if I am OK. I am an innocent and I tell her that I was frightened by the spider on the stairs. The spider that has long since disappeared and therefore making be worthy of my mother’s looks of disgust. She, like my father is a strong Nigerian and does not quite understand what the fuss is about.
Suffice to say nothing like that has every happened again but my grown-up life, my husband, very much aware of my dislike of these arachnids, is now official spider remover should the need arise. Our current eight legged guest, lived alongside us and expired peacefully in this old flower vase. The closest I got to it was with the lens of my camera.
The only spider that I have contact with, to the extent that I have allowed them to crawl unrestricted over my hands, is the so-called ‘money spider’. Somewhere in the years between infant and junior school, I was lead to believe that these spiders brought good luck/fortune. Interesting…
The girl in the bubble 