It Makes Me Think

On the way home from work this morning, in the rain (no, not showers, but rain) I passed a woman walking on the side of the road. She was perhaps in her late 20's dressed in office clothes with a cute pink backpack. She had no umbrella, hood or any other protection from the water. She was unhappy, not as in angry at the circumstances but as in really sad.

My car was full so I drove past but immediately felt guilty and prepared to turn around and offer her a ride - this was about 7km out of town so I figured she had a walk ahead of her.

And then as I was looking for somewhere to turn around I realized that I hadn't passed a broken down car and I wondered where she came from.

There was a good supply of farm houses, easily visible, but she hadn't gone to one of them. And the clincher for not turning around was that I realized she wasn't hitch-hiking, not only didn't she not put her thumb out, she moved from the edge of the road, past the wide verge and well into the grass on the side of the road. If she stayed on the verge she was well out of the way of getting splashed, or posing a danger to traffic. It occurred to me that her body language and behavior was definitely not indicating she wanted a ride.

Who was this woman? What was her story? Did I do the right thing?