Pole awakes to a new world

Jan Grzebski awoke from a very long nap today. Mr. Grzebski had fallen into a deep coma after a railway accident way back in 1988. At that time, Poland was still under communist rule and Lech Walesa (pictured at right) was but a labor activist working to better his country. Mr. Walesa would become president of a freed Poland two years later.

Although he is bound to a wheelchair, Grzebski's awakening and otherwise good health are nothing short of a miracle. Doctors had given him only two or three years to live following his accident of 19 years ago.

"It was my wife, Gertruda, that saved me, and I'll never forget it" said Grzebski. Throughout all of those years, Mrs.Grzebski performed the job of an experienced intensive care team, changing her comatose husband's position every hour to prevent bed-sore infections. Every HOUR for nineteen YEARS. . .this is a woman who took her marriage vows seriously indeed.

"When I went into a coma there was only tea and vinegar in the shops, meat was rationed and huge petrol queues were everywhere," said Grzebski. "Now I see people on the streets with cell phones and there are so many goods in the shops it makes my head spin."

During his long slumber, Grzebski's four young children had all married and produced 11 grandchildren who never expected to know a grandfather who had, for all intents and purposes, "died" when their parents were their current age. He says that he vaguely recalls the family gatherings he was taken to while in the coma and his wife and children's efforts to communicate with him.




God Bless you, sir, and may you truly enjoy your twilight years surrounded by the large family that is just now getting the long-delayed opportunity to know you. Hug and kiss your wife every night before you sleep and tell her you love her deeply. You will only be returning a fraction of the sentiment that she offered to you over the last two decades; yet I suspect that will be enough for her.