I also like the simplicity of this. Good appropriate diction, although I shared the TSDG's confusion over the meaning. Quotes would certainly help on a first reading, but I also wondered whether 'sweetheart dear' could be replaced with something like 'the man I adore', because I think the former implies a degree of reciprocity that is perhaps supposed to be lacking. It sent me down the track of thinking she might be dying from complications of an unwanted pregnancy, that perhaps he had been her sweetheart but jilted her when things got complicated. Or maybe that is supposed to be a possible interpretation?
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