Though it has been 47 years since she attended Robinson High School, Lou Ann Lipka, class of ’67, was still on the debt list- but only she knew.

Back in 1966, Lipka helped two friends sneak in to a dance without paying. That night, she took her hand, still wet from the ink stamp, and pressed it against her two friends’ hands.

“I probably didn’t stay in that dance more than ten minutes,” said Lipka. “The guilt was weighing on me so much.”

Somewhere during Lipka’s busy life, this memory of guilt got lost. It wasn’t until recently she finally remembered her debt.

“It was the Lord that brought it to mind about a year ago while I was watching Joyce Meyer on [television],” said Lipka. “She was sharing about a wrong that she needed to right.”

Lipka also had a wrong to right.

She knew what she needed to do- repay the debt.

She took out a piece of 5×7 floral and plaid stationary and wrote Principal Johnny Bush a note. With that note, she included a check for $10.

“I didn’t know what to think at first,” said Bush. “I thought it was either a joke or the cutest thing ever.”

Bush turned the check over to bookkeeper Camille Massey.

Neither Bush nor Massey knew how to go back that many years for accounting.

“It’s never too late to do the right thing,” Bush said. “I thought it was really sweet.”

Despite the fond memories Lipka has from her days at Robinson, what she did that night at the dance was a blemish she wanted to correct.

“When God acts in your heart,” she said, “You just can’t let it go by.”