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Saturday, June 02, 2007

The Day Everything Got Better

Can you imagine this?

A 65-year-old railwayman who fell into a coma following in an accident in communist Poland regained consciousness 19 years later to find democracy and a market economy, Polish media reported on Saturday.

Wheelchair-bound Jan Grzebski, whom doctors had given only two or three years to live following his 1988 accident, credited his caring wife Gertruda with his revival. ...

"When I went into a coma there was only tea and vinegar in the shops, meat was rationed and huge petrol queues 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."

Not only did he recover, but his entire country got better and the Russians are long gone!

I have to wonder if there was an Austin Powers moment when he was told the Cold War was over and he then exclaimed, "I knew we'd win, comrades!"

But to have gone into the coma on the eve of the Berlin Wall being torn down meant he missed the victory that now makes his head spin. Not to mention losing 19 years of his life, of course.

Amazing.