You’re living in Poland. The year is 1988. Times are tough. Poland is, of course, a communist country, so you do what you can to scrape by, and provide for your family. The stores are bare, with a minimum of goods, supplies are limited… mostly tea, vinegar… and meat is rationed, so there is no “stockpiling”. This is how you’ve grown up, this is all you’ve known. Communism is a way of life for you.
Then one day… an accident happens.
When you wake up, it is the year 2007. Communism is gone. Poland is a free democracy. People walk around with tiny boxes next to their ears talking to other people… these are called what? “Sell phones?” What are these people selling? Bright colorful shop signs everywhere. Cars like nothing you’ve ever imagined roam the streets. Stores with shelves filled with items you’ve never heard of, all with colorful packaging…
This has to be a dream, right? This isn’t real, is it?
True story. Sad, but also amazingly happy, and gives hope to thousands of people whose loved ones are in comas.
Jan Grzebski grew up in communist Poland. He had an accident in 1988, and has been in a coma ever since. He was not expected to survive for much more than a few years at most. And yet, against all odds, he did. 19 years his wife cared for him, talked to him, played music for him, took him out to family events, even though doctors had told her he would never come out of the coma.
His wife didn’t give up. And evidently neither did Jan, who has vague recollections of places he was taken to, his family speaking to him. (Which, also gives hope that people in comas do hear and perceive.)
Mr. Grzebski now has a rather large family, his four children have all married, and he has 11 grandchildren. What a great wake-up present.
Hope lives.