A woman whose son died after she pushed him on a swing set for two days straight is holding on to his memory, almost a year after his death.

A judge found Romechia Simms, 25, not criminally responsible earlier this year following the death of Ji'Aire Donnell Lee, three.

The little boy died of hypothermia and dehydration at a park in La Plata, Maryland. His mother had been suffering from schizophrenia at the time.

Now, Simms attends therapy twice a week and has joined a support group - but she told the Washington Post she would never get over losing her son.

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Ji'Aire Donnell Lee, three (pictured left with his mother and right in a Facebook shot) died in May last year after Romechia Simms, now 25, pushed him on a swing set in La Plata, Maryland, for 40 hours straight

'Sometimes I find myself doing weird things, like I will grab his socks and just hold onto his socks,' Simms told the newspaper.

'Or I will grab one of his toy balls and hold onto his ball - anything that helps me to feel close - that I know was his.'

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Ji'Aire died in May last year of hypothermia and dehydration after his mother kept him on a swing set for 40 hours.

She could have faced up to 45 years in prison for manslaughter, child abuse and child neglect resulting in death.

Simms had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and told authorities she had stopped taking her medication for a couple of days before her son's death. 

Before her trial started, she entered an Alford plea to a lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter.

By entering that plea, she acknowledged that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict her of the charge but she did not admit guilt.

Instead, a Charles County judge found Simms not criminally responsible and set her free her under a five-year conditional release order, stating she must see a psychiatrist and take her medication. 

Simms sometimes visits Ji'Aire's grave at Resurrection Cemetery in Clinton, Maryland (pictured on the day of the little boy's funeral) and has dreams about him at night

The mother had been diagnosed with schizophrenia when she kept pushing her son on a swing set (pictured) for two days. A judge found her not criminally responsible and released her, ordering her to get treatment

Two months after the verdict, Simms is keeping up with her treatment and sometimes writes downs her goals for the future in her journal.

She once studied to become a high school teacher, but now told the Washington Post she wants to be a nurse.

Simms lives in Waldorf, Maryland, with her mother - in a home where she keeps photos of Ji'Aire on the walls and his toys in boxes.

'I hate the way things happened,' she told the Washington Post. 'But there is nothing I can do to change that. I will always keep [Ji'Aire] close to my heart.

'Even though he is not here physically, I still feel him spiritually. I just know I will see him again one day.' 

She sometimes visits the little boy's grave with her mother, Vontasha, at Resurrection Cemetery in Clinton, Maryland.

Vontasha wants new legislation to make it easier to get help for adults with mental illness.

She tried to push for a law named after her grandson, but according to the Washington Post, it hasn't succeeded so far.

Simms's mother, Vontasha (pictured visiting Maryland legislators  in February) has tried to pass a new law named after her grandson, making it easier for relatives of adults with mental illness to get them help

Public defender Elizabeth Connell said in February that Simms had put the little boy in a swing but couldn't get him out.

'And then the voices started telling her, 'Don't worry. Someone is coming. Someone is going to come.

'She was just trapped. What was happening was a mental breakdown, mental illness taking over her.'

JiAire's father, James Lee, had once sought custody of the little boy, telling a court he did not believe Simms could safely care for him.

They had agreed to keep sharing custody just 11 days before JiAire's death. 

State's Attorney Tony Covington said: 'As a direct result of her not taking her medicine two days leading up to this episode, Ji'Aire is dead.

'Essentially, and I can't think of any other word to use for it your honor, tortured to death.' 

But Vontasha insists her daughter never stopped loving the little boy.

'Even during that terrible time, in the darkest moment of her life, she never left him there alone,' she told the Washignton Post.

'She stayed out there in the cold and the rain. She nearly had pneumonia herself. She took off her coat to cover his body. She never lost that motherly instinct.'

Simms, who likes to sing, wishes she could take to the stage but says she can't because people would judge her for her son's death.

She has trouble sleeping at night but when she does, she sometimes dreams of Ji'Aire.

'And then I wake up,' she said, 'and he's not here.'

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