The Last Doorbell Rung. My Memoirs (Gilberte Degeimbre)

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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,