Boon Srimai's tranquil life was shattered three years ago when death struck her family twice. Within a space of months in 2002, her 34-year-old son and his wife died of AIDS, leaving behind their young daughter Methini. Suddenly Boon, who was 60 at the time, found herself being a mother all over again, having to care for the orphaned child. She is not the only grandmother shouldering such a responsibility in her village of mostly rice farmers on the outskirts of this city in northern Thailand.