Gheorghe Jimboiu – “he had a brilliant mind and an imposing self-control”
Another good friend we lost was Gheorghe Jimboiu, a student at the Commercial Academy in Brașov. He was from Dolj County and at the time of his arrest his mother was seriously ill with a heart condition, leaving him without any support. She was a widow and he was her only child. After so many years, she didn’t know if he was alive or dead. How many thoughts and fears tormented her mind and soul!
I met him in Târgu-Ocna and from the beginning I was struck by his seriousness and his peculiar behaviour. He was quite tall, very thin, with a long face and grey-blue eyes that revealed all the purity of his soul. He had the most peculiar hands I have ever seen in a man: unnaturally thin, with very long fingers, hands made for prayer or for a great pianist. He had a brilliant mind and an imposing self-control. Often, when I had moments of spiritual turmoil or felt tired, a conversation with him would restore and strengthen me spiritually. In simple words he was able to convey the essence of the issues he was discussing with an extraordinary power of persuasion. In February 1953, when I was sent to Gherla for disciplinary reasons, I parted company with him. It was a difficult time, but the conversation with him strengthened my spirit and I looked to the future with more confidence. A year later, in 1954, I met him again in Gherla, where he had also arrived[1]. We were very happy. I was working at the doctor’s office at the time and, taking advantage of a more relaxed period, I gave him a sustained treatment that cheered him up for a while. The disease was very advanced (cirrhosis of the liver) and in the end it didn’t forgive him. In the summer of 1955 he was sent to Aiud, together with those who had served for more than ten years. He died there.
(Aristide Lefa – Fericiți cei qui plâng, Eminesc Publishing House, Bucharest, 1998, pp. 106-107)
[1] The moment of the meeting in Gherla is taken up by the memoirist in the same work, where he details: “Among the sick was my good friend from Târgu Ocna, Gheorghe Jimboiu, who, in addition to lung disease, also suffered from aggressive chronic hepatitis. I prescribed him many medicines, especially those necessary for liver disease, which improved his general condition. I had taken care to present his case to Dr Sin, whom I said I knew from the sanatorium, and explain the need for sustained treatment, which he agreed to. Unfortunately, the improvement was short-lived and after he was sent to Aiud prison, the hepatitis progressed to cirrhosis and he died. I found this out on my release and it saddened me deeply. (pg. 134)