Tina comes out to her mother as a transgender woman 100 times a year.

A Melbourne family lost a father, but gained much more when Tina Healy came out as a transgender woman nearly three and a half years ago.

On ABC’s 7.30 program last night, Tina told the story of how she finally came to accept her gender identity and, just as importantly, how her family did too.

Hers is a close family: she has four children with her former partner Tess and two grandchildren, and her mother is alive, but suffers from dementia.

“Quite a few of my family were concerned about what would happen if I came out to Mum, whether she might be too stressed to handle it,” Tina explained on last night’s episode.

“I kept it very simple. And she said — at the end of it, she said, ‘Well,’ she said, ‘What do you know?’ She said, ‘I’ve got a beautiful new daughter.’ And she said, ‘Come here, love.’ And I cried on her shoulder and Tess cried too and it was all wonderful.”

Because of her mother’s deteriorating short term memory, Tina must ‘come out’ each time she visits.

“I go and see Mum every few weeks and she’s forgotten each time, and every time I tell her again, she gives me just the same beautiful reaction that she did exactly the same, almost word for word every time,” she says.

“I’m kind of the luckiest one of all because I get to come out to Mum 100 times a year, and every time, she’s beautiful.”

Initially, Tina was also concerned about how her four adult children would feel if she were to come out.

“Tess knew that I had had gender issues before we were married, but I think in your 20s, you’re idealistic and we thought, ‘Oh, I can beat this. This is a real illness I’ve got,’ and there was something that was wrong with me. But of course it doesn’t go away. It always comes back.”

She told each of her kids individually, before sitting down as a family to talk about it at the dinner table one night.

“It just got to a point where I think there’s a tipping point where you just can’t wait anymore. You’ve waited a long time and it gets to that stage of your life where you need to think of yourself,” she said.

After the shock wore off, Tina’s children embraced their new parent, her daughter, Jessica Walton has even written a children’s book reflecting her father’s experience of transitioning.

“When we were growing up, Tina was so much fun. She was just such an involved, happy, down-to-earth dad,” Jessica remembers.

“It was just the last thing I would have expected.”

Jessica describes going through a period of grief when she worried about losing her dad but says she is glad Tina can finally be herself.

“I think we all did go through that stage of grief, but because there were four of us, we were all able to be there for one another,” she said.

“Eventually you come out the other side and realise that you now know your parent better than you ever did.”

Jessica’s book, Introducing Teddy, will be published globally by Bloomsbury in June 2016 and has already attracted international media attention.

“What’s really nice with little kids is when you read them a story that reflects your family, you know that they’re able to identify themselves in that story,” she said.

Tina and her partner Tess eventually separated, but remain good friends. She says her life and her family are more themselves and happier than ever before.

“My life is so different,” she says.

“I mean, I can be myself. I’m not as anxious anymore. I don’t worry as much. I’m much more peaceful and calm. I’m happy.

“I think my family are, well, in a way, kind of closer because they know who I am and they can relate to me as I am.”