TAKING slow, small steps towards the microphone, Heather Vincenti looks around at the familiar faces in the crowd.
She is a small, gentle woman with a big, beaming smile.
"I thank you all very much for coming and for reading my book. I'm sorry I am very nervous,'' she said.
Too Many Tears is Ms Vincenti's personal account as a member of the stolen generation.
The book, published by St Albans resident Tony Smith, was recently launched at Melbourne's Living Museum of the West in Maribyrnong, where family and friends - some new, some old - gathered to celebrate her life and struggles.
Co-written with Deborah Dickman and with a foreword by former Western Australian premier Carmen Lawrence, the book is only the second autobiographical account of a dark era in Australian history.
Mr Smith, who helped organise the launch, said the book was a tribute to his mother, Joan Carstairs, who was a close friend of Ms Vincenti.
Their lives intersected in Perth where Ms Carstairs, after seeing the plight of Aboriginal people in the area, agreed to take Ms Vincenti's son, Ricci, under her fostered
care.
Ricci spent most of his childhood in St Albans but died at the age of 19 while in custody in a Perth prison.
The two mothers turned to each other for support after Ricci's death.
Ms Carstairs, well known in the StAlbans community as a local historian and teacher, died recently.
Tony said although his mother did not see the book, she would have been satisfied with it.
"Even though my mother didn't get to see the final result, she would be pleased that the book is now out there and Heather's story is being told,'' he said.
Ms Vincenti still remembers Joan Carstairs as a source of strength, despite living in a society "plagued'' with racism.
"She was a beautiful lady, a really genuine person,'' she said.
"There was no animosity or prejudice, no seeing the colour of the skin ... she really cared about our people.
"She was always on my mind when I was writing this book.''
According to records, Heather Vincenti was born to an Aboriginal mother and Irish father in 1932.
Because of her mixed heritage, Vincenti was labelled a "half-caste'' and forcibly taken to a mission farm where she was made to do heavy labour.
"I really detested housework when I was at the mission,'' she recalls.
"A lot of kids and I were really good at art, but it was not encouraged.''
At the age of 16, Ms Vincenti went to Perth to sit a nursing exam.
She said it was difficult integrating with the community because she felt so different and socially crippled.
"It was hard. I didn't know much about me. I found it terribly difficult talking with people because you never met the white people in the mission,'' she said.
"In the mission, we weren't taught how to connect with people; it made me terrible shy and self-conscious.''
Ms Vincenti never met her family and the closest she came to knowing her parents was through "contradicting government documents'' she accessed while compiling the book.
"I often wondered who my parents were while I was growing up, but the mission kept telling me that I didn't have a family. Writing the book was emotionally hard, but it helped me put things together.''
She has experienced a series of tragic events in the later stages of her life.
After the forced removal of her four children by child welfare agencies in the early 1960s, Ms Vincenti battled with depression and illness.
This was followed by the suicide of her son Michael, the suspicious death of daughter Vanessa and the drug-related death of daughter Marcia.
Ms Vincenti's life is weighed down with much loss and sadness, but she is constantly looking at new ways to gain strength and positivity.
"Seeing people interested in my story has given me a real energy boost,'' she says.
"Growing up in the mission, I would never have dreamed that one day I would be telling my story and people would be listening.''
Details: www.toomanytearsbook.com