Once the formalities had been completed, the authorities had to set the exhumation date. As early as the first days of June 2015, I started online conversations about this date with Gheorghe Petrov, since I was to be present there with at least two more people capable of physical effort, in case manual diggings were necessary.

We solved this problem with some villagers from Mihalţ who offered to come and help: father and son Petru (Petrică Senior, priest Petrică Junior’s father) and Alin Stânea, who came by his car, a jeep, and Liviu Mihai Decean, my brother’s grandson.

I told Gheorghe Petrov that I would be out of the country from 4 to 11 September and I asked him not to set the date of exhumation for any of those days.

After a while, Gheorghe Petrov told me straight that he had been unable to move the date to August, and that the exhumation was set for 7 September.

I was confused and upset, and I felt deeply uncomfortable. I started my “assault” on Gheorghe Petrov, in order to convince him to change the date of exhumation so that I could be there. “I cannot change the date, dear Mr. Decean, since it was not me who fixed it”, he said. I took advantage of his presence in Timișoara, in August, at an event commemorating martyr heroes-partisans from Banat, and I insisted again on changing the exhumation date. Viorel Marineasa was there too, but he was no more successful than me. I even reminded Petrov about the book in which we would write about the exhumation. He gave me his chief’s phone number (Cosmin Budeancă) and insisted on my calling him, so that he could hear the conversation. That was very unkind of him and his attitude aroused my doubt concerning his honesty as a person with a public function. Once again it was confirmed that a person’s common sense does not “accompany” him/her all the time; it is sometimes hidden, no one knows when, why or where exactly...

That was the first time I heard about Cosmin Budeancă. I did not know him, so I did not want to talk to him on the phone and ask him to change the exhumation date. I was sure that such a phone conversation would have made me ridiculous, as I did not have a serious reason to request a change of the date. My reason was that in April I had already signed a contract with a travel company for a holiday abroad with my family from 4 to 11 September.

When Gheorghe Petrov left Timişoara, we neither shook hands nor said goodbye. I resigned myself to the idea that I would miss the exhumation, but at the same time I started thinking of cancelling my holiday abroad.

Many days had passed since we had parted under unfriendly circumstances. At the end of August he called to tell me that he had changed the exhumation date. We were to meet at a hostel in Bistra, on August 30, so that we could start work the following day, August 31, as IICCMRE announced in a press release.

I also informed Viorel Marineasa about the changing of the date, inviting him to come with me to Bistra. Viorel was very surprised to hear that the date had been changed, knowing that Gheorghe Petrov had said very firmly that it could not be changed. He expressed his regret that he could not come with me due to a previous commitment. Later, we agreed that the book would have only one author; it was his suggestion and Mihai Crâznic agreed with it too. They no longer wanted to be the co-authors of the book, because of the old friendship between Viorel and Marius Oprea, whom I criticize very much in this book, and also because of the family intrigues which they know nothing about.