A Social Obligation Perhaps?

TGIF! First week back to reality and I think I survived most of the events that came up. Mostly everyone at the office is still trying to get back into work-mode so for the most part, it was manageable. More importantly, Sarah is slowly getting back to her monotonous daily grind following what was a whirlwind couple of weeks with opening presents galore. I am happy to report that she is now finally done opening presents and we can begin purging some of her old toys.

As for myself, the daily grind includes the usual commute in to work with my train buddy, counting down the last minutes before I can clock out for the day (in between adding interesting and sometimes useless apps on my new phone :)) and seeing the same people trudge through their daily grind as I do. One such person is this gal with a guide dog. Since I see her practically everyday, we have spoken on occasion and I find her to be an amazingly strong and independent woman for someone with a "disability". Not only is she a rehab specialist for the vision-impaired but she is also involved in Toastmasters.Which brings me to a daily dilemma that I am secretly battling inside constantly...

See (no pun intended), since we live in the same townhouse complex up in the nose-bleeds of the mountain, we have walked home together with Howie (the dog) dragging her all the way home from the bus-stop as if his life were in jeopardy. Whenever I see her, I have made an effort to chat with her on the way home and on rainy days like today, I have even shared my umbrella with her since she doesn't use one. I don't pretend to know the reason but suspect she needs to keep her hands free?  Anyway, the internal battle I constantly fight within myself is whether I should feel obligated to talk/walk with her when I see her on my commute home. I mean, she can't see me (and my guess is that she wants to feel independent) so I don't know why I feel so guilty whenever I do see her. It has gotten to the point where I am even getting off at a later bus-stop to avoid this internal conflict. Am I losing my mind, and should I feel that I have a social obligation to help her out even though she hasn't asked for it?