Mirror Synchronicity: The Five Elizabeths

One of my hospice patients, Mark* was a veteran. So, in order to help him with some veterans stuff I had to coordinate with a social worker at the VA named Liz. I go by the name Lizzy and our patient would frequently get us confused. We would have to say not only our first and last name but also our organizations. Because I was the first to work with him, I always joked that I was #1. Well, as I began to set up more services for the patient, the strangest thing kept happening... I would end up connecting to people named Elizabeth. The woman who offered private pay aide services went by the name Liz. Then there was the local Senior Options caseworker who called me and said her name was Elizabeth. Finally, when he was talking about moving to an Assisted Living, the marketing person was Elizabeth. By the 5th Elizabeth I was in complete shock. I've always had a common name, but this was quite unusual and a little freaky.

*(not his real name for anyone who is worried about health privacy)