The Last Doorbell Rung. My Memoirs (Gilberte Degeimbre)

Gilberte Degeimbre
The Last
Doorbell Rung
My Memoirs
Preface by Bishop Rémy Vancottem

The Last Doorbell Rung

Gilberte Degeimbre
The Last
Doorbell Rung
My Memoirs
Foreword by
Most Reverend Rémy Vancottem,
Bishop of Namur
Introduction, Illustrations and Notes
by Fr. Christophe Rouard
Translation: Pro-Maria Committee U.S.A.

Imprimatur: Canon J.-M. Huet, Episcopal Vicar.
Namur, December 25, 2017.
For the original French version:
© 2018, Éditions jésuites
Belgique : 7, rue Blondeau, 5000 Namur
France : 14, rue d’Assas, 75006 Paris
www.editionsjesuites.com
For the current English version:
© 2019, Éditions jésuites.
Legal deposit (at the Royal Library of Belgium): D.2019, 4323.12
ISBN: 978-2-87356-837-5
Layout and typesetting: Jean-Marie Schwartz
Printed in E.U.

Preface
G
ilberte Degeimbre, tenacious and faithful witness,
nine years old at the time of the apparitions, left
behind a large autobiographical manuscript. I thank her
son for forwarding it to us, and Fathers André Haquin and
Christophe Rouard for proofreading it and seeing to its
publication. Hence, this document has given us pilgrims
of Beauraing the occasion to get to know more deeply
Gilberte, her sister Andrée Degeimbre, their immediate
family and all their entourage and environment.
At the time of the apparitions, Gilberte in truth remembers
the hostility and spitefulness that she and her friends
were faced with. Journalists, doctors, psychiatrists…as soon
as the apparition ended, the children were separated and
without care, submitted to a multitude of questions. Were
they conscious of terrorizing the children? Gilberte speaks
of them as “half-torturers,” but, that which made her most
suffer was her very own mother’s attitude. Barely moved

6
Preface
into the village of Beauraing, Gilberte’s mother most likely
feared rejection of the local people proving her to be harsh
towards her two daughters. By contrast, the three children
Fernande, Gilberte, and Albert Voisin, found themselves
comprehended and protected by their parents. The last
apparition and Our Lady’s farewell of January 3 was what
it took for the Degeimbre mother to believe her daughters
admitting that they are not “liars.”
Fortunately, at the time a commission on the inquisition
had been initiated by Bishop Charue, the atmosphere was
different. “That which remains in my memory is that they
were simple questions, not spiteful. I would even say asked
with gentleness. This was not at all comparable to what we
put up with in 1932-33.”
What Gilberte experienced during the apparitions
brought clarity to the rest of her life. During the last years
of her life she gave witness talks to all those who wanted to
hear. “She was so beautiful.” Her ordinary life was enlightened
by this experience of encounter with the one referring
to herself as “The Immaculate Virgin.”
For us pilgrims, who like to come and pray at the
Hawthorn where Our Lady appeared to five children of
Beauraing, and put her heart on view as one of gold,
Gilberte’s witness helps us discover daily a light that warms
our hearts, enlightens our life and clarifies our way. Mary’s
golden heart gleams with light, a light which is none other
than the reflection of her son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
I’ve been privileged to celebrate Gilberte Degeimbre’s
funeral mass in the crypt of the Basilica of The Golden
Heart in Beauraing. She has entered fully into the unending
light of God. There, the Lord and Our Mother the Virgin
Mary, waits for us all.

Preface 7
“The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming
into the world.
He came to what was his own, but his own people did
not accept him.
But to those who did accept him he gave power to
become children of God, to those who believe in his
name.
And the Word became flesh, and made his dwelling
among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as the
Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.”
(John 1: 9, 11-12, 14. N.A.B.)
Dear Gilberte: Thank you for having been with your sister
Andrée, with Fernande, Gilberte, and Albert Voisin
faithful and tenacious witnesses.
+ His Excellency Rémy Vancottem,
Bishop of Namur
•

Introduction
I
t is rare that witnesses of Marian apparitions which have
been officially recognized by the Church write long
accounts of their experiences. For example: one may consider
“The Story of My Conversion” by Alphonse Ratisbonne.
“The Life of Melanie, Shepherdess of La Salette,”
“My Childhood,” and other texts written by Melanie Calvet
in 1900. “Pontmain, Story of a Visionary,” by Joseph
Barbedette. “Memoirs of Sister Lucia” seer of Fatima. “The
Message of the Lady of all Peoples,” by Ida Peerdeman and
“The Last Doorbell Rung—My Memoirs,” by Gilberte
Degeimbre.
Here, we propose a truly original document for the
reader. The imagery of the apparitions and autobiographical
account of Gilberte Degeimbre is distinguished by her very
own character traits making it a delightful reading. It is a
simpler account compared to that of Alphonse Ratisbonne.
Of all narratives, Gilberte’s is the one with the least trace
of religious vocabulary. “Memoirs of Sister Lucia” is a work

10
The Last Doorbell Rung
of religion. In “The life of Melanie, Shepherdess of La
Salette,” the references to religious and spiritual life are
equally plentiful. “The Message of the Lady of all Peoples”
is a daily account of Our Lady’s messages. Joseph Barbedette
structured his narration in a similar manner, describing
the apparition, and each time retelling it in greater
detail, explaining the reactions of each person the night
Mary appeared at Pontmain.
The Last Doorbell Rung offers us something different altogether.
It is a text where the dominating factor between
November 29, 1932, to January 3, 1933, is the humanely
lived out experience of Gilberte Degeimbre (August 13, 1923
– February 10, 2015) that shook up her life as a young girl.
Gilberte puts forward in numerous pages the human context
she lived. She does not dwell on the Virgin’s phrases
which, for the most part, she did not even cite in the first
version of her manuscript, but references to one or the other
on half a page of the final text. Her concern is having the
reader understand her feelings during the times of the
apparitions. The first evenings of the apparitions, for
instance, were fearful. The desire to see Mary again replaced
the initial emotion of fear, and finally both were followed
by distress due to the unbelief of her close ones. She spends
much time also relating certain events that took place after
the apparitions and hence shows what repercussions these
had on her childhood and adolescent world.
Gilberte’s Memoirs have a long history. From 1978 to
1981, she handwrote for her sister Andrée’s son, Christian
Van den Steen, an account of her life before and after the
apparitions. Andrée also saw the Virgin during the same
period. The handwritten notes were far from constituting
a final text. Frequent ruptures, hesitations, and numerous

introduction 11
put offs accumulated throughout these eighty-seven
unstructured sheets of paper. The reader may read them on
the Jesuit website which edited this work. The original drafts
were left in a drawer at Christian Van den Steen’s for more
than twenty years until one day Gilberte’s husband, André
Philippe, went to look for them and made photocopies.
The couple returned to Beauraing in 2004, after having
lived forty-seven years in Italy. It is then that Gilberte had
wanted to see once again her notes hoping to leave behind
an account of what she lived out during her childhood. Her
husband retyped the notes on the computer, and working
with his wife, corrected them. They were put in order; the
structure was polished off with augmented and rephrased
paragraphs. At this stage of the text’s history, André’s influence
cannot be ignored. The notes from 1978-81 were rough
copies. The final text is more complete, but Gilberte still
considered it unfinished. She would have liked the format
to be more realistic. The content was what she wanted to
truly say, but the format did not correspond to that which
she was hoping to leave behind. Despite all these factors
she wanted the text published. Here and there, Gilberte
annotated the text by hand, especially the page where she
tells of the time when she and her friends went ringing
doorbells. This is echoed in the title of her manuscript, that
she marked in ink, “it was The Last Doorbell Rung.” Three
years before her death, Gilberte gave the text to her son
Jean-François, asking him to look after its publication. Her
son gave the text to Father André Haquin, Theologian and
resident of Beauraing, it was then given to Father Claude
Bastin, Rector of the Sanctuaries of Beauraing, who finally
entrusted it to me for publication.

12
The Last Doorbell Rung
Jeanine Laluyé et Rose-Marie Tasset saved the text to the
computer, Sister Marie Madeleine Burnet proofread the
document, and all following put me to work with the hope
to prepare it for publication. I reread, annotated, and illustrated
the work with numerous photos. I saw to the conclusion
of the text only when told that Christian Van den
Steen still had a photo of the three Degeimbre sisters dated
before the apparitions. Arriving at his home he told me that
he not only had this photo reproduced in the paragraph
titled La vie de la Famille (Family Life) but also the original
manuscript of Gilberte’s text, coup de Théâtre (Drama Theatre).
Faced with the two texts it was questionable what
attitude to have towards them. It was discerned with Father
André Haquin and the Jesuit Publication Company that it
was preferable to publish the final text –the one Gilberte
asked to be published– in book format, and upon consultation
with the reader, to propose him or her to read the
1978-81 text in numeric format.
With the account of her Memoirs, Jean-François has also
given us his mother’s journals all of which permit us to better
discover what kind of young person Gilberte was. One
of these journals includes songs illustrated with some colored
drawings. In reading these songs, one hears the young
catholic women of the period, intoning together refrains
and choruses. They sing of the countryside, nature, family,
and faith. On the cover page is written G. Degeimbre
eighth year. This certainly corresponds to her eighth year
of elementary school when she was about 14 years old. A
second journal begins with two lists of names of Pre-Jocistes,
(youth preparing to enter the Catholic Action Movement
known then as the YCW Young Christian Worker.) The list
included dates of birth between 1929-31 for the first group,

introduction 13
and 1931-32 for the second, the latter being children that
the adolescent Gilberte a Jociste (already a member), animated
and knew without doubt more intimately. A description
of twenty-four collective games followed. In reading
the descriptions one imagines the young women harmoniously
playing and having fun together. The third journal
is more religious. Its subject matter is linked to a bi-monthly
confession dated March 7, 1945. This third journal is certainly
tardier. Gilberte was 21 at the time. It equally contains
some lines manifesting her involvement in the resistance
movement during the war with SM (Sargent Major) Michel
Lallemand, 2 nd Battalion para-commando peloton
c-stick-7 skaeffen (diest). Here we discover a woman in
battle for her country, and equally involved in great devotion
towards Jesus. She goes into detail about her day with
Jesus, filling it with prayers addressed to Him, for example,
when she wakes up, and from time to time, confronted with
difficulty, prays before and after an action. She prays for
guidance following a mistake or a negligence, when she suffers
or is in pain, and before going to sleep. She offers her
day to the Divine Heart of Jesus in these terms:
All instances, all actions of my day are yours, Lord; I
offer them all to you without reserve. Do not permit
anything that may render them unworthy of your
Heart to enter. I renounce everything that may alter
their merit. Make it so, my God that I begin, continue
and, end each action in your grace, in view solely to
please and serve you. I unite them to the sentiments
and merits of your adorable Heart, that must be their
means and end, just as will be the crown of recompense.
Amen.

14
The Last Doorbell Rung
“Her life was life with Jesus,” as Jean-François said to
me. “It’s what she taught me,” he added while showing me
the New Testament his parents offered him as a child and
on which his mother wrote:
Translation of the above.
The Holy Bible of Canon Crampon
“You shall read often a page of the Gospel and mediate on it. You will find the
richness of its teaching based on the love of God and love of neighbor. I ask that
you follow well these precepts. Very affectionately, your mother.”
Gilberte’s faith had truly been centered on Jesus. Her
attachment to Mary, came in second in regards Mary’s bond
to her Divine Son, Jesus. Her immensity did not lessen.
Gilberte constantly thought of this at the Hawthorn, the
place where she saw the Virgin as a young girl. She said this
regularly during the last years of her life at Beauraing. The
book she wanted to leave behind is a supplementary witness
she gives to the apparitions of the Mother of God, that
shook up her life and influenced her passage to eternal life.
“That she may not leave me all alone at the time of death!”
Gilberte would willingly say. Mary must have certainly

introduction 15
accompanied Gilberte at the time of her death and entry
to the beyond!
In the same way, Mary accompanies daily life at the
Sanctuaries of Beauraing. Since 1933, millions of pilgrims
have gone there in response to Our Lady’s request of
December 23, 1932, “That people may come here on pilgrimages.”
This place of worship was authorized in 1943 and
Bishop Charue recognized the authenticity of the facts in
1949. A chapel was built in answer to Our Lady’s wish that
She formulated on December 17, 1932. It was inaugurated
in 1954, and since then other places of worship have been
erected, one of which has been elevated to the rank of
Minor Basilica on August 22, 2013.
A continuation of all that was said and written will be
unfolded in the succeeding pages.
Father Christophe Rouard

Cumont
My birth
It was August 1923, and a baby was expected at the
Cumont farm, situated between Wancennes and Vonêche.
As the family already had two daughters, it was normal for
family and friends to wish for a boy. However, my father
was hoping for a third daughter. Therefore, Andrée was
waiting for a little sister to be brought home, on a swallow’s
tail, as she had been told. This gave her much work to do
as there were about 100 swallow nests around the farm.
They were aligned in two rows on the south wall, from one
end of the farm house to the other. A third row was already
under construction. There were also nests in the stables and
in the barns and everyone was happily moving about. My
father was very happy and even had a shelter put up above
the front door. Poor Andrée was very brave and patient in
observing the swallows’ comings and goings.

Not the whole book is accessible

Table of Contents
Preface by Most Reverend Rémy Vancottem.......................... 5
Introduction.......................................................................... 9
Cumont ................................................................................ 17
My birth .................................................................................... 17
My christening ............................................................................ 19
The dresses .................................................................................. 20
Lily of the Valley.......................................................................... 21
Walk behind me .......................................................................... 22
Learning to read.......................................................................... 23
The good times ............................................................................ 24
The evening meal ........................................................................ 24
In bed ........................................................................................ 26
My sister Jeanne .......................................................................... 27
Children’s delight ........................................................................ 28
St. Nicholas’ day ........................................................................ 32
What an odd business .................................................................. 33
An operation was needed.............................................................. 34
School ........................................................................................ 36
Family life .................................................................................. 37

142
Table of contents
The Feast of the Ascension ............................................................ 39
A great happiness compromised .................................................... 41
Who was my father? .................................................................... 44
Sunless tomorrows........................................................................ 48
Beauraing .............................................................................. 53
The move .................................................................................... 53
School ........................................................................................ 54
New friends ................................................................................ 56
Come with us.............................................................................. 57
Practical jokes ............................................................................ 58
Tuesday, November 29, 1932 ........................................................ 59
The evening of November 30 ........................................................ 64
The First of December.................................................................. 66
Friday December 2 ...................................................................... 68
December 3 and 4 ...................................................................... 73
December 5 ................................................................................ 73
December 6 ................................................................................ 74
The days that followed.................................................................. 75
The bullying starts ...................................................................... 78
The interrogations........................................................................ 82
With trembling and fear .............................................................. 86
Tomorrow, I shall say something to each of you.............................. 92
At Mother Théophile’s.................................................................. 97
Good Father Maes ......................................................................100
And afterwards! ....................................................................101
The sick ......................................................................................103
The generous donors… disappointed ............................................105
Father Lafineur ..........................................................................106
Bishop Heylen ............................................................................110
Bishop Charue ............................................................................ 111
Princess Josephine ........................................................................ 112
The Notary Laurent .................................................................... 113
Virton ........................................................................................ 117
Mother ......................................................................................120
My sister Andrée.......................................................................... 126
The good Fathers ........................................................................129
Radio and cinema ......................................................................131

Table of contents 143
Appendix I: The 1935 Commission of Inquiry ......................133
Appendix II: Letters from an English soldier
to Mrs. Degeimbre and Gilberte ......................137
•

Printed by Nouvelle Imprimerie Laballery
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Legal deposit : June 2019
Printing number : 906028
Printed in France

The Last Doorbell Rung
“A Liar.” is is how the mother of Gilberte Degeimbre considered
her daughter, one of the five children who witnessed the apparitions
of the Virgin Mary at Beauraing. Gilberte had to wait until the final
apparition for the mother to finally believe. Beyond a simple autobiographical
story, this edited English text, introduces the lector to
the daily life of a little 9-year-old girl, who suddenly is witness to
extraordinary phenomena. If the encounters with the Virgin declare
her fortunate, contributing to a happiness never known, it was a
veritable Calvary that she experienced between apparitions that gain
our attention. Disowned by her mother, she had to face, after each
manifestation of the Virgin, a bitter course of scientific and ecclesiastical
interrogations. A poignant story that reveals beyond the
immense joy of the apparitions, a daily Way of the Cross endured
by the last seer of Beauraing.
Introductions, illustrations and notes
by Father Christophe Rouard,
Vice-Rector of the Shrines at Beauraing
ISBN 978-2-87356-837-5
Prix TTC : 15,90 €
9782873 568375
Front cover: photography © ASBL Pro Maria.