Focus : ‘Prayer’ for the Living : USA MOVIE TELLS OF A DYING MOTHER’S QUEST TO FIND A HOME FOR HER SON

That a story about a mother’s desperate search to find a home for her son before she dies of AIDS is a TV movie is not surprising. That this true story will be airing on the USA Network this week may surprise some.

First, some background: Rosemary Holmstrom, 36, watched her husband die from complications of AIDS, which he contracted through a blood transfusion. She learned she was also living with the virus and, with time running out, searched for an organization to help plan her young son’s future. She couldn’t find one. Holmstrom told her story to the New York Daily News, and things changed.

“A Mother’s Prayer,” premiering Thursday on the USA Network, dramatizes Holmstrom’s desperate hunt for a home for T.J., now 11. Linda Hamilton (“Terminator 2: Judgment Day”) stars as the scrappy, feisty Holmstrom. Noah Fleiss plays T.J.; Bruce Dern and Kate Nelligan are the Walkers, the couple who eventually adopt T.J. The cast also boasts “Supermodel” drag entertainer-cum-actor RuPaul--sans evening gown and blond tresses--as a counselor at the Gay Men’s Health Crisis who helps Holmstrom.

“A Mother’s Prayer” marks Hamilton’s first TV appearance since the demise of her CBS series “Beauty and the Beast” five years ago. “I just think these stories have to be told,” says Hamilton, who has seen several friends die of AIDS. “I was just very drawn to Rosemary.”

When Holmstrom’s story was brought to writer-director Lee Rose’s attention two years ago, she didn’t want to get involved. “I had a lot of friends die of AIDS,” Rose says. “I knew [Rosemary, T.J. and I] were going to get close. I didn’t want to go through someone dying again. I really thought, ‘I just can’t do this.’ Then I realized if I didn’t write it, some hack would come in and tell her story. I agreed to meet with them, and I fell in love with them.”

Two days after Hamilton agreed to the project, Holmstrom died. “So it was a really tough, bittersweet kind of thing,” Rose says.

“A Mother’s Prayer” is a far cry from the usual thrillers, mysteries and female-in-jeopardy movies on which USA has built its image. “We are really trying to shed that image,” says Rod Perth, president of USA Network Entertainment and executive vice president of programming. Earlier this year, USA went the “A” route with an acclaimed adaptation of Willa Cather’s “My Antonia.”

“I’m so proud of the picture,” Perth says of “Prayer.” “I’m proud for what it stands for. I think Linda’s performance is remarkable.”

But the most remarkable aspect of “A Mother’s Prayer,” Perth says, is “Lee’s passion for this and how she spread that passion and attracted just top creative people to be part of it. She has done so much to make this thing a success. It has been a great experience working for her.”

Before she began writing, Rose spent a lot of time with Holmstrom and T.J.

Holmstrom, though, never read the script. “I understood she didn’t want to have to relive all of that stuff,” Rose says. “But she was very forthcoming with her emotions and called me all the time.”

Rose always used to ask Holmstrom how she was able to “walk through this with such a sense of humor and such guts. “She said, ‘I don’t know how to do it any other way.’ ”

Holmstrom, though, did have a hard time making the commitment allowing the Walkers to rear her son; they are the parents of T.J.’s therapist. “She really did avoid them,” Rose says. “She was very honest about it. She wasn’t prepared to give him up. She also knew at the end of the day, she had to, but it was really tough. She had more courage than anyone I’ve ever met in my life. Rosemary was hoping that if people could see that someone like her could walk through it that other mothers could make the decision to take care of their children before it is too late, which, unfortunately, most mothers don’t.”

Hamilton, who lost 12 pounds for the role, loved the story because Holmstrom was not “totally grace under pressure or a crusader, but someone who was doing what she needed to do and doing the best thing. But when it came down to actually handing over your child to somebody else, knowing that you won’t be there to see them do their wonderful little routines, that was the hardest thing for her, not her own death.”

Before production began in January, Hamilton and Noah Fleiss had dinner with T.J. and his adoptive parents. “We weren’t allowed to speak of Rosemary with him,” Hamilton says. “He was having a very hard time, sort of a delayed reaction to it. I guess he was so prepared on some level because he had been living with it for some years--it hit him later.”

At the conclusion of the film, there’s a 1-800 number for mothers with AIDS who have no one to leave their children with.

The sole organization to help these mothers is part of the National Council for Adoption. “They started after Rosemary went public,” Rose says. “For anybody who calls the 800 number, they will connect you with people in the city you’re in to get you help and get therapy. It’s amazing there is only one number that anyone can call.”

“A Mother’s Prayer” airs Wednesday at 9 p.m. on USA.