From Lolita to Baba Yaga, who is the scariest woman you have ever known?

This means known personally—that is, not a fictional character, a celebrity, a political leader, etc. She had to know you and not just be seen from afar.

Who is or was this terrifying woman? What role did she have in your life, what did she look like, and what made her so scary?

For clarification: she doesn’t have to have held an important role in your life, as long as there was some reciprocal relationship, some interaction between you. She could have been remote or temporary—a neighbor, a school principal, an ex-girlfriend. The question is not how much she affected your life but how frightening she was.