I think it's safe to assume that Dr Chilton dies of a fatal case of plot device.

All we're told is that he 'died suddenly' and the text leaves us no idea why. Sadly, she only gets to spend a few years of marital bliss with her beloved Dr Thomas Chilton before he passes away, which understandably upsets many readers who enjoyed their whirlwind, second chance courtship.

Polly's brief taste of happiness seems to have made her crabbier than ever. She's such a grinch, she even wants to cancel Christmas. To say she's reverted back to her bitter, cantankerous old self is an understatement. Aunt Polly is now a widow who has fallen on hard times. Pollyanna is twenty years old, returning to Beldingsville with her aunt after living abroad. The second half shoots forward six years. And at last she learns that approaching strangers isn't always commendable. In this first half, Pollyanna discovers that living in a big city is way different from living in a small town, and people are far more aloof than she'd like. By the time Pollyanna leaves Boston, shes's helped bring several disparate, hurting people together, just by being herself and stepping out where more cautious and unsociable people would fear to tread. Jamie is a yearning, idealistic character we can't help liking. It's possibly because he seems to have the typecast despondent, creative temperament of a literary author the very thing he aspires to be. Although Jamie plays his own version of Pollyanna's 'Game', he's not half as good at it as she is. There in Boston, Pollyanna continues her habit of accidentally helping people transform their lives, including Jamie, a smart, bookish boy in a wheelchair, who might even be Mrs Carew's lost nephew, since he's unsure of his parentage and has the right name.

It casts a horrible shadow over every day of her life. Ruth can't bear the uncertainty of not knowing whether he's suffering, or even dead. These days he'd be on the missing person files. Even though Ruth's brother-in-law has probably passed away, little Jamie's whereabouts remains unknown. She is sent to stay with Mrs Ruth Carew, a lady suffering deep depression because over a decade earlier, her beloved baby nephew was kidnapped from the family by his eccentric father. This is an entertaining sequel to 'Pollyanna', which starts soon after the conclusion.

Pollyanna grows up book