On Sunday, Liu Li received a simple Mother's Day present from her only child: a basket of red, pink and white carnations wrapped in purple rice paper. That afternoon, the 15-year-old returned to boarding school knowing he had made his mother the happiest woman in their village. Liu and her husband never thought about defying China's one-child policy. They already had everything they could hope for in a son. Meng Hao was not only a good student and star athlete, he was even the tallest kid around. On Wednesday, the Mother's Day flowers were still fresh in the family's living room, next to rows of certificates of merit from Meng's school years. But Liu's beloved boy was dead. "When I heard he was gone, my whole body went numb,' she said. "I felt the sky falling.' As the death toll rises from the worst earthquake to hit China in 30 years, Sichuan province has become a valley of sadness. Schools were among the most badly damaged buildings, and some of the most grief-stricken residents are parents who lost an only child. Liu, 38, slumped Wednesday into a chair in a makeshift tent here among the wheat fields. Not only are parents mourning the loss of a cherished child; the next generation is expected to look after their parents in old age in a society where the safety net is disappearing. And many in Chinese society regard people in their late 30s or early 40s as too old to have another child. In Sichuan, China's most populous province, the one-child policy is strictly enforced among poor farmers. "I'd say 90 percent of the people around here have only one child,' said Wang Xia, hugging her 5-year-old daughter close. "It takes a lot of money to raise children, we farmers have a hard time even supporting ourselves, how can we afford to pay fines to have more?' The name of this town, Xingfu, means Happiness. But it has become hell for parents who first thought they had escaped the tragedy. When disaster struck Monday, Meng's parents raced to the nearby school and helped dig through the rubble. First there was good news. After being trapped under broken concrete for eight hours, Meng was rescued alive. "He kept saying