| This must truly be a Valentine story to beat all | | | | nightmare. |
| others. In the heat and chaos of World War One, | | | | Then, on April 25, 1920, she crested a hill near |
| a young Polish soldier known as Stanislaus | | | | Zlota and leaped for joy. The castle overlooking |
| Omensky kissed his fiancee, Merna, before | | | | the town was exactly the one of her dream. She |
| marching off to war. "I'll dream of you," she said. | | | | ran into the town, dusty and screaming, and |
| Little did either of them know that Merna's dream | | | | collapsed by the fountain, excited and exhausted. |
| would end up saving Stanislaus' life. | | | | When she was roused she told the townspeople |
| In October of 1918, in the dying days of the | | | | her story, and ran off to scrabble at the castle |
| Great War, Merna had a terrible nightmare. She | | | | rocks bare-handed. Everyone in Zlota knew that |
| dreamed that Stanislaus was groping his way | | | | the castle had been damaged in the war, but they |
| through a dark tunnel, ending in a jumbled mass | | | | didn't know what to make of Merna's tale. Still, |
| of rocks and timbers. She saw him setting a | | | | many townsmen soon helped her, moving debris |
| candle down to throw his strength against the | | | | and rocks away from the base of the tower. |
| blockage, and collapsing back, weeping. | | | | For two days they dug, and then came upon an |
| Merna had the same dream several times, and | | | | open area under the rubble. From the entrance |
| pestered the authorities in her native Czernak to | | | | came the weak cries of a pale, ragged Stanislaus. |
| try and help her find Stanislaus. With many | | | | He and Merna were reunited. The Polish soldier |
| thousands of soldiers missing or dead, they had | | | | had been saved by the power of love, and the |
| no time for her. In the summer of 1919 her | | | | strength of Merna's conviction in her dream. |
| dreams changed. Now she saw a castle on the | | | | Stanislaus' side of the story was just as amazing. |
| brow of a hill, with one tower crumbled into a | | | | He had taken refuge in the castle during a fight, |
| mass of stone and timbers. As she got closer, | | | | and been buried when artillery struck the tower. |
| she could hear a voice crying for help. Again, this | | | | He had found candles, water, cheese, wine, and |
| dream returned to her night after night. She told | | | | hundreds of rats, and lived in almost complete |
| whoever she could, and was greeted with | | | | darkness for two years. |
| skepticism and ridicule. | | | | The Polish Army investigated, and found every |
| Merna took to traveling the countryside where | | | | aspect of the couple's story to be true. Stanislaus |
| Stanislaus' regiment had last been seen. She was | | | | was dismissed with honors, and the two married |
| penniless, living only on the kindness of strangers, | | | | and lived, we can presume, happily ever after. |
| but refused to give up on her betrothed and her | | | | "The secret is not to dream," she whispered. "The |
| dream. The area was replete with many ruined | | | | secret is to wake up. Waking up is harder. |
| castles, but none matched the tower in her | | | | |