Real Life Rip Van Winkle Awakens

Jan Grzebski has awakened after 19 years of unconsciousness. When he was in an accident, Poland was in the throes of a communist tyranny. Now it is free, and rocking and rolling (which I also saw on my recent visit there). From the story:

"When I went into a coma there was only tea and vinegar in the shops, meat was rationed and huge petrol lines were everywhere," Grzebski told TVN24, describing his recollections of the communist system's economic collapse. Now I see people on the streets with cell phones and there are so many goods in the shops it makes my head spin."

But here is the crucial part of the story many will insist is not pertinent to certain recent controversies:

"It was Gertruda that saved me, and I'll never forget it," Grzebski told news channel TVN24. "For 19 years Mrs. Grzebski did the job of an experienced intensive care team, changing her comatose husband's position every hour to prevent bed-sore infections," Super Express reported Dr. Boguslaw Poniatowski as saying...He [Grzebski] said he vaguely recalled the family gatherings he was taken to while in a coma and his wife and children trying to communicate with him.

How wonderful Gertruda loved him enough to care for him so devotedly and for so long--and that she was allowed the chance to see her hopes and prayers realized. Others who wanted to do the same for loved ones have not been so fortunate.