Earlier this year, Tina Conley of Rumford feared that her son, Eddie, would die. So visiting or writing Eddie Boucher at Maine State Prison in Warren is a gift.

But it’s sad when a mom feels the need to write about her son’s life in 1,000 words so he’ll understand his own past. And should a man so confused be in solitary confinement and not a hospital bed?

eddie this is your life as much as i can remember it has been alot of years but i will do my very best

“All I want is for my son to get the rehabilitation he needs,” Conley said Tuesday as she clutched an inch-thick stack of correspondence in one hand and flicked ashes from a cigarette with the other. “He’s not a mass murderer.”

In April, with 16 months remaining in a sentence for violating probation, Eddie collapsed. He’d been previously diagnosed with an ear infection. Later, a neurosurgeon determined that bacterial meningitis and a rare disorder known as herpes simplex encephalitis had combined to cause a near-fatal brain infection.

At the beginning of his two-week hospital stay, Conley was told that her son had a one-in-four chance of survival. If Eddie lived through emergency surgery to drain fluid and reduce swelling in the brain, doctors said he could be paralyzed.

Instead, he made a miraculous physical recovery. So he was returned to prison, even though the ordeal wiped out most of his memory.

you have been in jail alot but that doesnt mean your a bad person you just made bad choices

Family members say solitary confinement is a concession to Eddie’s brain injury but that the 27-year-old inmate thinks it’s punishment.

He’s permitted only one visit per week with a therapist from the Maine Center for Integrated Rehabilitation.

“He needs help,” said his brother, Daniel. “He only recognizes his family. But as far as the prison is concerned, the state is his family.”

you may wonder what some of your scars are from you and your brother use to watch superman and you both decided you guys could fly and let me tell you you was fast when you was doing anything so you jumped off the porch with your superman outfit on

Conley hasn’t found anyone who can help get Eddie moved to a full-time rehab center that might reverse his amnesia and jump-start his recovery. At least Gov. John Baldacci’s office sent a letter of acknowledgment. Many other phone and e-mail messages went unreturned.

Thanks to Mom’s recollection, Eddie now knows that he lived in Rhode Island and Texas as well as Rumford and Farmington as a boy. That he was molested by a neighbor at age 11. That he escaped several times from Maine Youth Center in South Portland.

you got into trouble with the law doing different things like driving without a license, you helped other people abduct this guy who stabbed your stepbrother … you have broken your hand several times from punching walls when you got upset with other people

Family and friends concede that Eddie is no angel but that the illness made him a more serious, polite person who says “sorry,” “thank you” and “please” with ease.

“He almost died. That’s enough to scare anyone,” said Heather Belanger, who was Eddie’s girlfriend for seven years. “We don’t want him to get out of doing his time. We just want him to go to rehab and get better.”

Eddie writes Mom in immaculate handwriting.

“When I get home,” he penned, “it’s time for me to settle down and start a family with some girl. Don’t know who yet, but we’ll see. Time for me to be there for you, Dad and Danny, too.”

She fights tears and writes back, including before-and-after photographs that might fill some gaps.

i love you dearly if i remember any more i will let you know and if you have any questions just ask and maybe you can jog your mom’s memory

And she resolves not to quit seeking someone who will intervene.

“A few weeks ago the thought went through my head to just give up, that he’s almost out, anyway,” Conley said. “Then I said, No, screw them.’ My son isn’t going to be discarded. Not my kid.”

Kalle Oakes is the Sun Journal’s columnist. His e-mail is [email protected].