By Mariluz Villa

I am really bad at finding my way around. This thought repeated itself over and over as I drove toward Roche Harbor earlier today.

My husband asked whether or not I knew where I was going. I lied and said, “Sure, no problem, it’s an island, how could I possibly get lost?”

Right? Which is why he usually is the navigator—I don’t know my right from my left—and I drive.

But what if he weren’t there to tell me where to go?

Enter Google Maps! According to my husband, Google Maps knows everything. Well, except for the parts of the island where there is no cell phone service and suddenly roads just end and I get stuck with no one around to help.

What I need in life is a reliable source of directions that can make decisions for me when I am alone and in danger of getting lost.

And, that is what all of us need in life all the way to the very end of the road: someone who knows us well enough to make decisions for us when we no longer can speak for ourselves, knows what truly matters and what we truly want.

Right? A person to make decisions for you at the end of your life, a place where there is no Google Maps or divine directional assistance coming from the cloud(s), except how is anyone supposed to possess that degree of navigational skill when no roadmap exists?

Last month, Hospice of San Juan launched its “Coping with Change” series with a session that focused on end-of-life paperwork. We learned about Advanced Directives and how you may give some instruction about how you want the end of your life steered.

But what if you don’t have an Advanced Directive? How is the person sitting by your side supposed to know what kind of treatment you want, or don’t want, for that matter? Where’s the roadmap?

If you come to Hospice of San Juan’s next event, offered Wednesday, Feb. 18, 6-7:30 p.m., at the Library, you will have the opportunity to play a game called “Go Wish.”  It’s a card game and you play it with the person(s) you want to be your end-of-life navigator, and together you become cartographers, charting roads to take that appear on no map.

How could you possibly get lost? Right?

— Editor’s note: Mariluz Villa, president of Hospice of San Juan board of directors, is board certified in internal and geriatric medicine, as well as in hospice and palliative care.