The respected wife, mother and educator died peacefully at her home on August 30. 

Mrs Burgman was born Imelda Parnell in 1921 at Wagga Base Hospital but grew up in the Mangoplah/Cookardinia area.

Her father died when she was five and her mother remarried a Dutch naval officer in 1930, which saw the family move to Batavia, now known as Jakarta, in Indonesia.

They lived there until Mrs Burgman met her husband, Albert Burgman, just before the bombing of Pearl Harbour in 1941.

When Singapore and Indonesia fell, Mrs Burgman and her then fiancé were take to civilian and military PoW camps, respectively.

They spent three-and-a-half years in the camps with no contact until Mr Burgman tracked down his bride-to-be after she was transferred to Brisbane.

The couple were married in May, 1946 and moved to Holland before returning to Wagga at the end of 1950.

They had seven children and six are still alive today – Roland Burgman, Astrid Herbert, Richard Burgman, Mark Burgman, Albert Burgman and Imelda Burgman.

Mrs Burgman became fascinated with the Montessori method of education and helped establish the Montessori Preschool in the mid 1980s in Wagga.

Mrs Burgman and her husband volunteered with the crisis line for St Vincent de Paul and used their experience in PoW camps to assist people in the military who required help.

Mrs Burgman was also qualified in aural rehabilitation for Better Hearing Australia.

She was named NSW Senior Citizen of the Year in 2001 for her work with Montessori and Better Hearing Australia.

Mrs Burgman and her husband regularly laid wreaths at Wagga services commemorating the Fall of Singapore, Anzac Day and Victory in the Pacific Day.

A requiem mass for Mrs Burgman will be held on September 7 at 10am at St Michael’s Cathedral.

Mrs Burgman is remembered by her children, 13 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.