Need opinions on settling an old debt [View All]

[Xithras]

Alright, the wife and I can't agree on this one, so I'm looking for some unbiased opinions:

Nearly twelve years ago, when I was 17, a few friends and I piled into my old Camaro and took a road trip to San Francisco. None of us had been there before, and we spent the day cruising around the city, checking out the sights, trying the local herb, and otherwise having a good time. We spent the night at the foot of Coit Tower and woke to a beautiful sunrise, and the sight of a low, wispy fog flowing through the Golden Gate and across the city below us.

Then we realized that someone had stolen our wallets, ALL of our wallets, the day before. So much for an enjoyable trip :mad:

Anyway, so here we are, stuck in a strange city many hours from home, no money, no gas, no way to get home. Our parents would have KILLED us if they knew where we'd gone, so calling for help wasn't even an option. So we begged, we panhandled, and we tried every trick we could think of to make money, and yet by 3PM that day we still only had $2.50 between us.

Now, I'm Catholic by baptism, but I had never really been active in the church (in fact, I'm still not). Still, with no other options, I eventually found myself on the doorstep to Saints Peter and Paul church asking for assistance. The priest, who's name I do not remember, looked over our disheveled group, removed $20 from the donation box, and handed it to me after asking me to promise to return it when I had a chance.

Twelve years later I have yet to fulfill that promise, and I find that it STILL bothers me. I don't know why...it's only $20 after all, but I've always felt like I'd done something horribly wrong. It's not that I hadn't had a chance to pay them back, I've visited SF hundreds of times since then, and even worked in the city for a brief period, but I've never taken the time out to drive out to little Italy and hand back that $20. I want to fix that.

My wife and I are going to San Francisco next weekend with our kids to spend a day at the Exploratorium and the zoo, and I told her a little while ago that I wanted to detour to the church and pay them back. I explained the whole story to her, just as I did you, and I EXPECTED her to be sympathetic...but instead she LAUGHED and said that it was one of the dumbest things she'd ever heard of. She told me to get over it, or give the money to charity, or even to one of our local churches, but that she thought it WEIRD that I even remember it after all these years, and even weirder that it bugs me...and she DOES NOT want to detour across the city just so that I can ease my conscience.

What should I do?