Another discussion

In another conversation between Petrov and Mărioara, he convinced her not to come to Bistra on August 30, the night before the exhumation day, telling her that someone would take her from Cluj-Napoca and bring her to Muntele Mare, at Groşi, only after the exact location of the mass grave had been identified, the remains had been partially exhumed and a military prosecutor had arrived as well.

Who else but me could have been the person who had to go to Cluj and bring cousin Mărioara to Bistra, then take her back to Cluj? I had to follow a schedule established by Gheorghe Petrov without my prior consent. If I am too suspicious, the good man will forgive me...

The good man, Petrov, made the reservations in a hostel in Bistra, not only for the officials who were present at the exhumation, but also for the volunteers (me and my relatives). “Dear Mr. Decean, I’ll handle it, do not worry,” he said.

My 86-year old cousin Mărioara needed a room of her own, which was booked for September 2. But Mărioara had changed her mind and asked me to come to Cluj-Napoca on August 30, 2015 and take her by car to Bistra the same day, as she really wanted to be present at her brother’s exhumation from the very first beginning (August 31).

I called Petrov and informed him that Mărioara had changed her mind, as I had previously suspected and even told him, knowing her better than him. I asked him to make a reservation for her for the night of August 30. “It’s impossible, dear Mr. Decean, it’s too late”, he said. I was very worried knowing that my cousin Mărioara would not be very pleased to hear that she would stay in the same room with me and her great grandson Liviu Mihai, who is a student at the Faculty of Greek-Catholic Theology.

Mărioara had no choice and accepted the situation with a joke: We’ll pray and tell stories and finally we’ll fall asleep. She has never lacked humor. It is what keeps her alive at her age, she says.

We talked a lot that evening before falling asleep, lying in our beds. We also spoke about Petrov’s concern that Mărioara would stay alone in a hostel room in Bistra for too many nights and she could be haunted by the dead silence of the nights in the Apuseni Mountains.


Mihail Decean	Exhumation of martyr-heroes with an excavator

Another discussion
In another conversation between Petrov and Mărioara, he convinced her not to come to Bistra on August 30, the night before the exhumation day, telling her that someone would take her from Cluj-Napoca and bring her to Muntele Mare, at Groşi, only after the exact location of the mass grave had been identified, the remains had been partially exhumed and a military prosecutor had arrived as well. Who else but me could have been the person who had to go to Cluj and bring cousin Mărioara to Bistra, then take her back to Cluj? I had to follow a schedule established by Gheorghe Petrov without my prior consent. If I am too suspicious, the good man will forgive me... The good man, Petrov, made the reservations in a hostel in Bistra, not only for the officials who were present at the exhumation, but also for the volunteers (me and my relatives). “Dear Mr. Decean, I’ll handle it, do not worry,” he said. My 86-year old cousin Mărioara needed a room of her own, which was booked for September 2. But Mărioara had changed her mind and asked me to come to Cluj-Napoca on August 30, 2015 and take her by car to Bistra the same day, as she really wanted to be present at her brother’s exhumation from the very first beginning (August 31). I called Petrov and informed him that Mărioara had changed her mind, as I had previously suspected and even told him, knowing her better than him. I asked him to make a reservation for her for the night of August 30. “It’s impossible, dear Mr. Decean, it’s too late”, he said. I was very worried knowing that my cousin Mărioara would not be very pleased to hear that she would stay in the same room with me and her great grandson Liviu Mihai, who is a student at the Faculty of Greek-Catholic Theology. Mărioara had no choice and accepted the situation with a joke: We’ll pray and tell stories and finally we’ll fall asleep. She has never lacked humor. It is what keeps her alive at her age, she says. We talked a lot that evening before falling asleep, lying in our beds. We also spoke about Petrov’s concern that Mărioara would stay alone in a hostel room in Bistra for too many nights and she could be haunted by the dead silence of the nights in the Apuseni Mountains.


© Mihail Decean 2016. Reproduction prohibited without the author's permission