Emily WAS guilty of running away from her problems, even if the running started out as a coping mechanism for her in the wake of her child's death. It took the encounter with the psycho to prove to her that she could overcome tragedy and move on with her life.

Her husband came across to me as less a jerk and more a bereaved father who was clumsily navigating both his grief, his wife's, and their collective grief, and doing the best he could without much support from Emily. He was right when he pointed out that her running was avoidance.

I found her to be a marginally sympathetic character, actually, and I've had far more empathy for other King characters who've lost a child (the Glicks in 'Salem's Lot; Mike Noonan; Bill's parents in It.....)