Little systematic quantitative research is available on the parents of adults who become ill and die of AIDS despite their large number and the wide range of adverse consequences that could potentially result. The current study, based on survey data from Cambodia, is among the first of its kind. The analysis explores a range of potential economic and social effects on parents in a country characterized by extreme poverty and the highest HIV prevalence in Asia. Results indicate that parents play a major role during their adult son or daughter’s illness, often sharing living quarters, providing care, and paying for expenses related to the illness. These important contributions to how Cambodian society is coping with AIDS come at considerable cost to the parents who are commonly at advanced ages. Multivariate analysis suggests lasting negative economic consequences for economic well-being and more substantial consequences if the death was from AIDS than from other causes. Reactions from other local community members, however, are considerably more likely to sympathetic and supportive than negative. These results underscore the need for greater recognition by organizations dealing with AIDS of both the contributions older persons make in coping with the epidemic and its consequences for them.