Mother Battles Ill Son’s Eviction : Housing: Huntington Beach mobile home park orders him out of her trailer because his age, 39, violates 55-plus rule. She says he is too sick with AIDS to move.

Although owners of a mobile home park have informed Shirley Lewis that her 39-year-old son has to move because he is too young to live there, she contends that the real reason is that he has AIDS.

“Most people out there are planning their Thanksgiving dinners right now,” Lewis, 61, said Tuesday. “We’re planning how we’re going to stay together.”

Lewis said Huntington Shorecliffs Mobile Home Park sent a notice last weekend reminding her that park rules require that all residents be at least 55. But a woman in the office of the mobile home park refused to comment Tuesday about the Lewises or the terms of her rental agreement.

Shirley Lewis bought the mobile home four years ago with most of her life savings. It is the only home she has owned, she says, but she will risk losing it before disrupting her son’s fragile, fading life.

“I won’t put my son out on the streets,” she said. “I want my son to have the best possible quality of life for the time he has left.”

Steven Lewis’ father, when he learned of his son’s illness, severed all ties two years ago.

He says he does not want to burden his mother, but he has no friends to whom he can turn. “I’ve got a lot more things to think about,” he said, “than where I’m going to sleep.”

Steven always has been very close with his mother, saying it was a reluctant parting when he turned 19 and struck out on his own.

“I made sure he knew how to do his laundry, cook, iron, write a check,” his mother said. “This is the first time he’s ever had to move in with me. The first time he’s ever needed my help.”

The day did not come without warning, of course, since Steven’s HIV was diagnosed in 1987.

Knowing their time together might be short, Shirley decided two years ago to take him to Europe, to “see all the things he’d always read about.”

With the last of her retirement nest egg, she took Steven on a cruise to Greece and Italy, generating a few lasting memories among the ruins of Athens and the gondolas of Venice.

When she bought her mobile home, Lewis was mindful of what lay ahead. She said she warned management that the day would come when she would have to care for her son.

“I was very open with them that my son was HIV-positive and there might come a time when he’d have to move in,” she said. “They didn’t say anything.”

In April, the inevitable came, she said. “Steven was no longer able to care for himself and his savings had run out,” she said.

At first, management was sympathetic to her plight and no one mentioned the age restriction.

“They can flex the rules as much as they want,” said William B. Carolan, Lewis’ lawyer, who notes that the mobile home park would have no problem if she became ill and a 39-year-old care-giver moved into her house.

Why management chooses not to make an exception for the Lewises is a mystery, Carolan said.

“I hate to think it’s my HIV status,” Steven said. “I keep a low profile. I know about the age restriction, so I don’t use the pool, I don’t go in the Jacuzzi, I don’t jog around the complex.”

Mostly, Steven passes the time tending a small garden and doing pen-and-ink drawings. He sometimes doesn’t leave the house for days.

“I have to tell you,” his mother said. “I’ve shed a lot over this, a lot of tears.”