Do you think my supervisor's wife somehow felt threatened by me when we first met?

[Anonymous]

I met my phd supervisor's wife two weeks ago. I fully knew who she was and I was supposed to help her with one of her students. My supervisor had already talked to me about everything and debriefed me. When I met them and said hi my supervisor didn't formally introduce us, but there were only four people there beside me. My supervisor, his wife, an older technician and a much younger student so there was no way anyone could mistake her for someone else. The moment she met me she turned around and said to my supervisor why don't you tell her about our 13th wedding anniversary this year and then she proceeded to talk about it to her technician completely ignoring me for like 5 minutes. I didn't really know how to react so I just smiled and nodded politely.

I noticed some physical similarities between us but I am a few years younger than her. Could it be that she felt threatened by that? I don't understand why she acted so awkwardly around me so I don't know how to act around her now. Is there something I can do to reassure her I'm definitely not behind her husband so she eases up since I have to do some experiments with her now?

[Anonymous]

Just act normally. She could be a little scatter brained and didn’t realize you felt ignored by her addressing another person, anyone could make that mistake. I remember a few years ago in beauty school I had a teacher who was about in her mid-50s and my god she was all over the place. I’d go in to buy some product which should take less than 10 minutes and it turns into 45, watching her hustle around like a headless chicken doing everything else but ring me up. Maybe it’s an age thing.

[slatyb]

I expect that she did feel threatened. That's quite sad. There's probably nothing you can do that would help.

How to act? Professionally, impersonally.