I had been visiting my mother in the hospital on the first morning after major surgery and, after a bit, I checked in at the nurse’s station as I was stepping out for lunch. I wanted to make sure they had my contact info just in case something happened to mom while I was being mesmerized by a grilled cheese sandwich.

“Yep, we got it” I was breezily told, “we have your name and number.” I was concerned about my elderly mother so I politely asked the nurse to please confirm. Please be specific. “What do you have on your chart? What’s my name, what’s my number?” I asked the nurse. “Please repeat the info back to me.”

The nurse smiled slyly. She turned her computer screen around to face me. My mom’s case was up on the screen. It showed the contact name (me) for the patient (her) and the contact person’s relationship to the patient. However, my lengthy first name Christopher was truncated to fit in the box on the computer screen. So the screen displayed my name and my relationship to my mom as:

• “Christ”
• “son of”

Funny! My mother received very good care in the hospital. All good!