Marin Naidim left this life to meet his best friend, his brother, Valeriu Gafencu, on the other side.
Characterising us, the four of us, his close friends from 1942-1946-1948: Costica (Pascu), Neculai (Trifoiu), Ion (Ianolide) and Marin (Naidim), in the lines I published on pages 198-199 of the book Student VALERIU GAFENCU, “The Saint of Romanian Prisons”, 1998, about Marin, who was his closest brother, Valeriu Gafencu limits himself to writing a few words: “He is the simplest of all my friends. Clean, full of love, warm, a child at heart, very well formed”.
The one who “caught” him in a book, insisting more on his qualities, writing his name only with initials, is the publicist, quite well known since before 1940, Gabriel Bălănescu (author also of the book about the Transylvanian Revolution of 1848, Avram Iancu), in the volume From the Kingdom of Death […].
After the liberation in 1964, I tried very hard to find Marin’s address. I succeeded by sending him a letter with only the name of the addressee, in his native village, Râmniceni, Buzău County. We began to correspond. After 1990, I visited him in Constanța, where he had settled in the small apartment of his sister, who, as a nun, had returned to Vladimirești Monastery. Among the letters I received from Marin, I quote one that sums up his principles and thoughts:
“Constanța,
6 Dec. 1996
Saint Nicholas reminded me that I have another friend who bears his name and to whom I must wish “Happy Birthday”, so dear Nicholas, I ask Saint Nicholas to help you to live many years, in good health and with the fulfilment of your wishes. You must not forget that St. Nicholas is also the guardian of old age, that we too have reached the age when we need him and this quality of guardian of the elderly. We needed him once, you and I, when we were imprisoned, because St. Nicholas helped us too, because he freed three lords from prison, and since then all those who fall into the spider’s web turn to him. St. Nicholas is good at everything. He saves people from suffering and disease, and he defends the Church of Christ by angering and beating the heretic Arie, which shows that there is also a holy anger when you are forgiven for being violent, defending faith, truth and justice.
St Nicholas, as a child, sucked only from the right tit, as a sign that he would have the right part, which the Lord has prepared for the chosen ones.
We pray to him to help those who are divided, those who fight among themselves, because we are Christ’s flock. I’m talking about For the Fatherland and other groups. Why are we not one and have many opinions? We have the same origin. May St. Nicholas work a miracle and unite us all…
Brother Nicholas, in the hope that God will help us through the intercession of the saint, I greet you and embrace you with the much missed brother, Marin”.
Marin, dear brother, you too, together with Valeriu, up there, pray for our helplessness!
(Nicolae Trifoiu – Literary pages. Memories and Evocations, Napoca-Star Publishing House, Cluj, 2001, pp. 177-180)