In part two of this episodic psychological thriller, Nicole Jeffords. convinced that healer, Victor Goodlove, who disappeared ten years earlier is buried under her studio, continues her search for him, contacting old patients all over Austin and dis...
There was a third aspect to Elena Ceausescu's dislike of Maria, and that had to do with the actress's father, a highly regarded internist named Gheorghe Neagu.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Gheorghe Neagu
Gheorghe, an only child, had grown up with privilege due to the family's successful pharmaceutical company. His own father had wanted him to join the business, had in fact groomed him from childhood on to be his successor, but as an adolescent the boy had rebelled: he wanted to be a doctor. From a very early age, Gheorghe had shown healing tendencies, restoring ailing dogs and cats to health seemingly just by the touch of his hand, a trait not deemed weird or unusual among Romanians who prized folk remedies and alternative approaches to medicine. In the end, of course, the boy got his way. He went to Berlin to study medicine, and returned to Bucharest six years later with a wife (the Clara Becker whose portrait is in my living room) and a new career. War was looming. The young doctor's services were increasingly in demand as he developed a reputation for calming the mind as well as curing physical illnesses. Suddenly everyone wanted to see Dr. Neagu. It was whispered that he was a faith healer, a saint, rumors that continued for the rest of his life.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Photo credit Matheus Ferrero, Unsplash
When I first heard about Dr. Neagu and his reputation as a hands on healer, I immediately thought of Victor Goodlove who had similar gifts. In fact, I studied their faces for similarities —
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Victor Goodlove, left and George Neagu
But there were none, why would there be? The two doctors were from unrelated families. What I did learn was that Nicolae Ceausescu, who was very health conscious, was absolutely determined to have Gheorghe Neagu as his personal physician. In 1947, when the communists took over, the Neagu family had lost its wealth, but that didn't seem to bother Gheorghe who would treat people for free if he had to. Ceausescu came into power in 1965. From the beginning, he courted Gheorghe to advise him on food, diet, medical problems, but the good doctor, who visited the dictator and attended to his ailments on one or two occasions, ultimately refused to be his physician, even moving to another city to get away from him. This had serious repercussions.
