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Celebration Day: Nathaniel Parker performs Samuel Johnson’s ‘On the Death of Dr Robert Levet’ in memory of his motherSource: Celebration Day

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00:03Celebration Day, now I don't know how old it is, but it's getting on to being a toddler, isn't it?
00:10It's a proper toddler. I think it's a wonderful thing to do.
00:14Everybody I talk to who doesn't know it, and there are fewer and fewer of them,
00:17thinks it's a brilliant idea, because how often do we get the chance in this incredibly busy, fast life
00:23to just sit down and go, yeah, that person really shaped something in me.
00:28This year, I'm remembering my mum, who shaped me completely, really.
00:32Or half of me. Dad did the other half.
00:34It's a different feeling, actually. It's rather a lovely feeling. It's a cosy feeling.
00:37She was there at the beginning of my life, and then I was there at the end of her life,
00:40and it was wonderful.
00:42One of my favourite memories, the early memories, is when I was at primary school.
00:47I'd come home, and she'd be being a GP, and I'd sit with her as she did her surgeries.
00:53Two things really stand out in my mind from that. One is that she smoked, which is so bizarre now,
01:00isn't it?
01:00The other thing that I think really infused into me was the community.
01:06Everybody in the community knew her. So that taught me a lot, because mum was always national health.
01:12Didn't do her days in private, which was very important when she died, actually,
01:14because I remember taking her to the hospital for the last time.
01:18I fussed like mad because she was in a ward.
01:21And I was like, no, she's a private room. She's a doctor. She's a private room.
01:24And she said, Nat, calm down. It's okay. This is the NHS. I've come full circle.
01:31So I'm going to do a poem called On the Death of Dr. Robert Levitt by Dr. Samuel Johnson.
01:36And we are in Dr. Samuel Johnson's house right now.
01:39Condemned to hope's delusive mind. As on we toil from day to day,
01:46by sudden blasts or slow decline, our social comforts drop away.
01:54Well tried through many a varying year, see Levitt to the grave descend,
01:59officious, innocent, sincere, of every friendless name, the friend.
02:08Yet still he fills affection's eye, obscurely wise and coarsely kind.
02:15Nor let it arrogance deny thy praise to merit unrefined.
02:22When fainting nature called for aid, and hovering death prepared the blow,
02:27his vigorous remedy displayed the power of art without the show.
02:34In misery's darkest cavern known, his useful care was ever nigh,
02:40where hopeless anguish poured his groan and lonely want retired to die.
02:49No summons mocked by chill delay, no petty gain disdained by pride.
02:54The modest wants of every day, the toil of every day supplied.
03:02His virtues walked their narrow round, nor made a pause, nor left a void.
03:10And sure the eternal master found the single talent well employed.
03:16The busy day, the peaceful night, unfelt, uncounted, glided by.
03:22His frame was firm, his powers were bright, though now his eightieth year was nigh.
03:30Then, with no throbbing fiery pain, no cold gradations of decay,
03:38Death broke at once the vital chain, and freed his soul the nearest way.
03:49That's my mum.
03:50that's my mum at the end.
03:52There's a twist.
03:54That's it.
03:54That's my mum.
03:55I don't have to wear it.
03:55That's my mum.
03:55It's my mum.
03:57That's my mum.
03:58That's my mum.
03:59It's my mum.
04:00That's my mum.
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