Facetious?

As I headed down the hangar to board the plane the other evening, a disabled woman was being guided from a wheelchair to her seat right ahead of me. The head airline hostess asked me and those behind me to wait a few minutes until she was seated. At that very moment, my suitcase handle slipped out of my hands and my suitcase hit the woman behind me. She shrieked. Not loudly, but she shrieked. I felt terrible about it and I turned around and asked her if she were OK. Her response indicated that I was ingnorant in even asking as such since if it hadn't hurt, she would not have shrieked. I offered to buy her a drink. Her response was strong, "Are you being facetious?" In my mind, I could not even comprehend how facetiousness had anything at all to do with offering someone a drink for having hurt her, accidentally no less. She continued on and on about how I was being facetious, and that this was quite bothersome to her. I quietly apologized, turned forward, and headed to my seat (fortunately, she was not seated right next to me).

It took me a long time to let this incident go. I simply could not understand how my efforts to be kind to her based on an accident that may have hurt her would lead to such negativity and accusations of my being facetious. Furthermore this situation was directly related to our efforts to patiently await this older woman finding her seat on the plane.

The lesson that I think I am learning here is that some people interpret situations completely differently than I might and that I need to be open to this possibility in all situations in life. I also know that I must let go of things that are out of my control. Some people thrive on controlling situations; I was just trying to be kind and apologize.