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What is the story behind your Virtual Hospice nickname? 
10 May 2014, 9:48 PM

I've been intrigued by some of your nicknames and have often wondered if there's a story behind the name. I'm afraid mine is more functional than creative, but how about you?

  • How did you choose your nickname? 

  • Is there a special story attached to your choice?

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Reply by JennJilks
11 May 2014, 11:47 AM

As a writer, workshop leader, hospice volunteer, healthcare advocate, I truly fear nicknames on the internet. 
I have to post my real name, as my contacts need to know my qualifications.
I often receive private email from people asking for help and advice.
This is important from a professional point of view, I believe.
Now that my own situation has changed, I am now caregiver to a man with prostate cancer, I still believe in talking about our journey honestly.

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Reply by marstin
11 May 2014, 4:37 PM

As Len and I never managed to legally get married we combined a part of each of our last names to come up with Marstin and called ourselves the Marstin family. I have used this for years in many situations and it has now become a part of my identity.
 
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Reply by KathCull_admin
11 May 2014, 5:11 PM

KathCull started with wanting an email username that would retain some confidentiallity but also not be too hard to remember. By joining together the first 4 letters of my first and last name - voila - I had a nickname! 

  
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Reply by Pooka
11 May 2014, 10:12 PM

Hi,
Pooka is the name my husband gave me. That is my "sweet name" . When he was not too happy with me, it was my normal name- Jackie. He used the name Pooka- which is pronounced Pu-Kuh.
 
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Reply by eKIM
11 May 2014, 11:45 PM

eKim is simply Mike spelled backwards – although I prefer to go by Michael.

When I first heard about Virtual Hospice, I knew that I wanted to participate in bringing comfort to others.

I am a hospice Resident Support Volunteer.  Anonymity was extremely important to me to prevent me from inadvertently breaching confidentiality.

Originally I liked the androgynous sound of eKim and I thought that it would be of benefit, however very soon I realized that sharing my story in a forthright manner was important.

So that’s my “not so exciting” story.  - Michael

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Reply by Digger
12 May 2014, 4:01 PM

According to my aunt, younger sister of my mother and occasional babysitter, i liked digging in the dirt as a child. Hence the name 'digger' which she still calls me more than 50 years later.
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Reply by EastCoastPEI
12 May 2014, 7:29 PM

I started with my real name but eventually changed it to a nickname.... there are certains things that happened with family members ( being not so great ) that I thought I might eventully write about and didn't want my real name here.  

So where am I from?  I'm from the East Coast of Canada in PEI.  so I went with EastCoastPEI

Isn't that riveting? haha 
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Reply by Xenia
13 May 2014, 12:34 AM

Hi:   I am the middle child (if you call 7 out of 14 - 2 baby deaths) I always wanted to be a princess.

So I called myself Xenia which is from a Ukrainian story and it is a common name for girls of Ukrainian origin.  There was a princess Xenis so that is whom I choose to be.  lol

A lot of names of Ukrainian origian have a lot of meaning. 

Love all the nicknames.

Yours Xenia 
 

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Reply by oldbat
31 Aug 2014, 11:22 PM

Oldbat?  Because that's what I am!  I first saw those letters on a car license plate.  This was a thousand years ago, when growing old was just a vicious rumour. It certainly wasn't going to happen to me!  I wanted to run over and hug the woman who was driving the car - but she drove like a bat out of hell!

So now I, too, have reached my golden (Hah!) years.  And that license plate has stuck with me for ever.   I don't drive.  Everybody's insurance would go up if I did!  So I borrowed oldbat as a handle and am now trying to live the moniker down!
 
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