In memory of Madame Gilberte Rousseau
Born in Etterbeek on 12/04/194
Died in Woluwé-Saint-Pierre on 31/07/2011
Co-founder of GéniWal with her husband Claude Naulaers
For Gigi
It's a truism to say that it's difficult to take up a pen to pay tribute to someone you won't see again and about whom you're not yet used to speaking in the past tense. It's another to think that this kind of exercise is always conventional ... and that we always find all the qualities in those who have left. And yet... Community life is just like life itself: it's made up of sharing, encounters, laughter and smiles, tiredness and disappointments, heartfelt moments and outbursts, work and joy(s).
Gigi (why say Gilberte when we never called her that?) was all that. I want to say that those who have shared (a little, a lot, madly) in the life of GéniWal since 1998 and beyond have always known Gigi, and have experienced all these moments with her. Even if everyone has (and will have) their own memories. For me, it will be the time spent together at various trade shows, answering questions from the public on the GéniWal stand. Let's forget - or pretend to forget - the family tree we filled in at the Lille congress in June to express our friendship: let's forget, because that was already a way of admitting that we had to say goodbye (quickly). Gigi? Genealogist", "volunteer", "chatty", "Dutch-speaking"... and "from Brussels". Genealogist? Among other things, she gave us the benefit of her research in Great Britain and did a lot of work on the ancestry of Jacques Brel. A volunteer? In the original sense of the word: the one "who wants to": she rarely said "no" to Gigi. Chatty? Like me, with me, with others... A flaw and a quality when it comes to answering the questions of the Belgian and foreign genealogical public. Dutch-speaking? There have been times when she and I have been alone at VVF congresses - when our diaries were full - where she would have me repeat a few official words to her and, above all, where, unlike me, she could converse with our friends and neighbours in their own language. Brussels? For me, this will be the last word or - if you prefer - the best: Gigi, when we met up in the evening (around a table of French and Belgians) liked to tell us stories in Brussels. Gigi loved to laugh and shared her humour with us, much to our delight, for example at the Marne-la-Vallée conference in 2009. More than two years on ...
You would have liked to know that I suggested to the French - as a joke - that they hold their 2015 congress in ... Waterloo. You would have laughed with me. For the next Geneatica in Wavre, or in Marseille in 2013, you won't be coming with us ... and no one will be telling us stories in Brussels like you ... But you'll be there all the same. So we'll be saying goodbye!
Christophe Drugy, 12 August 2011
Gigi registered her genealogy during her lifetime so that it could be passed on to future generations.
We will be delighted to answer any questions you may have about his genealogy.
