Nonviolent Communication

My conflict has been brewing for several weeks now with a colleague. This colleague is much older than myself and is very emotional. Not many people get along with her because she is what my office calls "messy." She says things to people that are often taken out of context. Maybe she means good by what she says but often times it is not taken that way. The majority of my co-workers ignore this lady or smart something ugly back off at her. A few weeks back this particular colleague began watching when I was in the office and when I was out. She started antagonizing me and making rude comments such as "Well, I see you did come to work today or You are off more than anyone person I have ever seen." Mind you that I rarely miss work unless it is something wrong with my children. I am the person that will go to work sick as a dog just to get sent back home. I heard comments such as these for weeks not only in my office but she would post things on Facebook. I finally had enough of her and really wanted to speak my mind to her but could not get the words out. I would smile and laugh and go on. Until she started posting these comments on my Facebook page. So, I comment back to her something like "I am not sure why you keep making jokes about me missing work." She laid off for a while then started back at it later. By this point I have had way past enough so I went to the directors and was told to ignore her and that would get to her more than anything. BUT it didn't! I finally had to be ugly and make ugly comments back to her. Was this a good idea? No, but at the time I was so fed up that I forgot about all conflict resolution skills and tactics. However, my strategies to deal with her now are to smile, speak my feelings in a calm manner and avoid any conflict as much as possible. Speaking my feelings is often hard for me but I have learned that in order to resolve conflict it is important to express my feelings.