offensive old woman

an elderly woman pointed her umbrella at me yesterday. i found that action rather offensive. 

you see, last night, i brought my mum to parkway parade. now the car park of parkway parade is designed such that exiting cars are channeled to 1-2 single exit barriers. i had parked at level 6 and had to move through 5 levels of car park to get to the barrier. as it was near the closing time, there was also quite a few people criss-crossing the car park as they tried to get to their cars as many cars inched towards the barrier.

it so happened that there was this elderly woman. she was trying to cross the car park to get to her son's car. there were quite a few cars in front of me and the drivers did not give way to her and she waited by the side. we were all moving at 5-10km/hr. it was a very slow pace by all standards, but i supposed to the elderly lady, she wasn't confident enough to cross. as i approached her, i slowed down to let her cross. and as i did so, she gave me an angry look and pointed her umbrella towards me.

well, one might argue that she was thanking me, but looking at the expression on her face, i found it terribly offensive. she did not smile. and she did not even say thank you. for that matter, it almost felt like she was pointing her centre finger at me! i simply drove off.

i didn't feel good about the incident at all. and reflecting on it, i pondered whether we have, as a society, deteriorated to a point where simple courtesies such as a smile and a thank you is that difficult? or for that matter, have we come to a point where giving way to an elderly lady is that difficult? have we hit the point where we feel we are entitled to everything? are we beaming a self-centred society?

if we have, how can we turn this around?