Jorge: I don’t think anyone really wants to think about death or serious illness. I’ve really been put off in the past because one of my doctors kept asking me whether or not I wanted to have CPR if I got sick. It scared me.

But, then a new doctor asked me about how I wanted to live. She asked me what’s important in my life, what brings my life meaning. It’s definitely easier to think about how I want to live. That seems so much more familiar and easy to think about.

Helen: Since I believe God is in control, at first I didn’t see any reason to think about what’s important to me. But, it was so much easier when I had to make decisions for my brother because he had already told me what was important to him. This helped me and his doctors and it let me know what to pray about.

I am going to do the same for my decision maker by telling her what is important to me.

Ken: I know, some people think about what they want from life. But that’s not me. So when my doctor asked me what was really important to me in life, I couldn’t think of anything. The doctor explained that knowing this information would help him take better care of me.

It was uncomfortable at first, but then I realized that what was most important to me was being able to live on my own. Once I was able to figure that out, I was able to tell my doctor.