not so much the picture of patience

Yep, I've had my son referred to as an "it" straight to my face. Actually not too long ago. Pretty ugly thing to say. I corrected her and took it as an opportunity to tell the woman about George's life and death. Then I shrugged it off. This particular person is incredibly insensitive and for her it was just normal behavior so I was able to ignore it pretty well.

Sorry you had to be audience to that. Perhaps her "spirituality" was clouding her sensibility. I actually often find that the insensitive things people say almost always tend to be clouded in pseudo-spirituality.