You can overcome death in the family much quicker when you're younger than not. Jeremy hadn't known personal death and was sheltered in that respect,so wouldn't really have known how to tackle it.
Those sort of people with the upbringing that they had have very different emotions,which border on the unemotional. Such as June,for instance didn't show emotion when Sheila had been discharged from hospital for the last time. Sheila had told her friend Sonja that her mother didn't understand that she'd been ill and more or less told her to " get on with it ".
June was quite hard and unsympathetic in that respect,towards Sheila anyway,though Sheila was angry towards both parents because of their attitudes towards her.
So really,to be brought up in an atmosphere such as this,is it any wonder the kids were confused ?