You will conceive my sorrow for the loss of my mother, of the best
mother. If she were to live again, surely I should behave better to
her.
But she is happy, and what is past is nothing to her: and, for me,
since I cannot repair my faults to her, I hope repentance will efface
them. I return you, and all those that have been good to her, my
sincerest thanks, and pray God to repay you all with infinite
advantage. Write to me, and comfort me, dear child. I shall be glad
likewise, if Kitty will write to me. I shall send a bill of twenty
pounds in a few days, which I thought to have brought to my mother,
but God suffered it not. I have not power nor composure to say much
more. God bless you, and bless us all.

I am, dear Miss,

Your affectionate humble servant,

SAM. JOHNSON.

Her attention to his mother, as it is reported in the following words,
by Miss Seward, ensured to Johnson the sympathy of Lucy Porter.

From the age of twenty till her fortieth year, when affluence came to
her by the death of her eldest brother, she had boarded in Lichfield
with Dr. Johnson's mother, who still kept that little bookseller's shop,
by which her husband had supplied the scanty means of existence.
Meanwhile, Lucy Porter kept the best company of our little city, but
would make no engagement on market-days, lest Granny, as she called Mrs.
Johnson, should catch cold by serving in the shop. There Lucy Porter