Mean Girls

I can't say I've always been the nicest person in the world, but I've never been intentionally mean. However, I HAVE been incredibly immature. When I first started working straight out of college, I worked with a lady that was extremely eccentric. She had so many, countless, unimaginable stories she shared, dressed crazy, said crazy stuff.  Everyone in our department talked about her, me included. I have a quick wit and people laughed. It wasn't meant to be hurtful; it was just an incredulous awe at this woman and her antics.

Long story short, we hurt that lady's feelings because someone somehow felt they should let her know what was being said about her - in an effort to get back at us I guess. I felt horrible. But I couldn't undo the things I had said or done, yet I did apologize to her face to face. And she accepted that seemingly and we went on to have a decent interaction with one another in the coming years until she left my company. I never meant to hurt anyone, but I did. And I feel so sorry for that, but you can't exactly go back and tell your 20-year-old self to quit being so stupid. If that worked, there are a lot of other things I would have told myself not to do as well.

Another girl I worked with though, she also joined in at being appalled by this woman - said plenty of hurtful, mean things herself.  And then, one day, she decided SHE was offended and stopped talking to me.  That was 8 years ago. I have no clue what I did or said or what someone told her I did or said. I've tried multiple times to engage her, to apologize to her, to try to tell her I'm not who I was 8 years ago.  She refuses to listen. It makes for some really awkward elevator rides sometimes. Still, every time I pass her in the hall or the parking lot or even alone on the elevator, I smile and say hi and try to make small talk.  She huffs and snarls her nose up at me and ignores my complete existence. My husband says I should shake it off and move on, but I can't let it go.

I can't stand for someone to not like me and I feel it's unjustified at this point. It's fine for you to not prefer to be around me, but I think she should have common courtesy and not just huff and snarl when you see a coworker for the past decade or so. I want to tell this lady that even criminals have been paroled and forgiven in this amount of time and yet she won't even have a conversation with me to tell me why she hates me so much. Staff meetings, parties, elevator rides, parking lots, there are SO many awkward encounters in our work week.  I just would like to no dread these parts of my day.  Any suggestions on how to deal with her continued bitterness and my past sins?