Offering Assistance; The Rejected Offer

Sometime ago, it happened that while I driving home from the farm, I came across one old woman who was stricken in age. I think she would be in her 80s. She was carrying a heavy load of root crops on her head. I guess she harvested those from her farm and was on her way home.

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Her legs were shaking from the weight of the load, she looked weak and tired and she was moving slowly.
I drove past the old woman when I noticed her. I thought that she might need some help. I had to reverse the vehicle to meet her.

I greeted her as a respectful young man would do. She responded calmly then, I asked her where she was heading to. When she told me, I knew how far her destination was so I offered to help the old lady.
To my surprise, she blatantly declined my offer to help her. I went on to persuade her and even tried to convince her to get into the vehicle so that i could drop her off considering her age and tge weight of the load. She didn't say a word to me again as she kept her pace and walked past me ignoring my plea to assist her. I sat still in the car looking transfixed wondering what would have made the aged woman reject help in broad daylight.
I started my engine and zoomed off still in shock at the woman's reaction with so many thoughts flowing in and out of my head.
I surely got an unpleasant surprise that day.