Lighting, Light Fixtures, Ceiling and Exhaust Fans - mandatory ground connect?

I replaced a ceiling light fixture. Upon removing the old one, I noticed the black and white wires from outlet were hooked up(naturally) but the ground wire in the outlet was wrapped up in the box and not connected to a ground. It was original wiring(20yrs +)..
I replaced w/ a white, black, and ground wire fixture. I hooked up the ground wire from the new fixture to the green grounding screw on the plate that came along w/ fixture and left the existing ground wire in the outlet on its own.
Did I do the right thing? Did it for a relative and not there currently...
Am I properly grounded?
thanks.

I'm not quite sure I understood, but all grounding wires in the box (from the ceiling and from the fixture) should be connected together. And this should be connected to the box as well (if metal) and to the fixture bracket (if it provides a grounding screw). Basically when it comes to grounding, everything should be connected together from one central point.

Yes, you did understand my question but....
When I hooked up the new fixture, I did connect grounding wire from fixture to the green grounding screw while i left the existing ground wire from the box(which had never been hooked up at all in the 20 years it had been there) alone and not hooked up.
Can I get away with this without totally stressing out about a potential problem? I'm 4 states away while doing the electrical hookup for my grandmother.....

ps. the gentleman from menards, via phone, had stated that he felt the ground in the ceiling was never hooked up so not to worry about it???

What do you think?

It'll wait until you get back.