Childhood mourning. An impossible desire in Lois Lowry's a Summer to Die

In Lois Lowry's A Summer to Die, protagonist Meg Chalmers appears wiser than her thirteen years, able to handle such painful crises as her sister's death to leukemia, moving to a new town in the middle of a school year, and witnessing the birth of her neighbors' son with an ease and grace equal to the remarkably well-adjusted adults in her life. She also appears to have better sense than some of the not-so-well-adjusted adults who threaten to disrupt her world, such as Clarice Callaway (the town busybody) and Martin Huntington (the-opportunistic lawyer) and even at times her adult friends and neighbors Will, Ben, and Maria.