"I never understood everything she was going through, and it was really hard for me because Jame was relapsing and going down a huge road that eventually took her life," Kim Wallack said.

Nonetheless, Jame Wallack believed in the dream of becoming an advocate or peer counselor for other transgender people, Kim said. Just a couple of days before she died, she learned she had been accepted to the psychology program at Montana State University in Bozeman, Kim Wallack said.

"But that meant she would have to leave us, and she didn't know if she could do that," Wallack said.

Child and Family Services tried to get help for Jame, but the demands of life without a home had overwhelmed her, her wife said: "Jame was just overloaded with trying to find a job and a place to live and a car and visitation."

At her best, Jame Wallack was full of life and laughter, and she wanted to live to help others, Kim said. She loved her two children.

"She just lost a battle, and she didn't know how to fight anymore," Wallack said.