By assuring Colin that his mother's spirit exists in the garden, Mrs. Sowerby helps guide Colin further in the direction of coming to terms with his mother's death. This allows him the emotional skills to look for mothering figures in more places, while also pointing him in the direction of the parent he still has. Her insistence that Mr. Craven will come home soon offers another place in which positive thinking may have an effect on someone other than the person doing the thinking.