Sickness, failure, problems with our children--who doesn't occasionally worry about things like this But for Tay Thomas, wife of Alaska's former lieutenant-governor, Lowell Thomas, Jr., such worries had become an incapacitating way of life, robbing her of the ability to enjoy the present because something might happen in the future. Here is the intimate story of a notable woman's 20-year battle with worry habits formed in childhood. Her first efforts were bootstrap ones. Believing that if she acted in a confident manner, confidence itself would follow, she joined her explorer husband in the globe-circling odysseys for which they are famous. But while the world hailed her courage, Tay alone knew the agonies she suffered in secret. She had not only the worries of any housewife and mother, but additional ones while - Crossing a flimsy rope bridge covered with ice high above a chasm in the Himalayas - Terrified of flying yet living in Alaska where frequent air trips are unavoidable - Watch