PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE: As I write this column, I am preparing to fly to my home state of Michigan. The mother of one of my very best friends, someone I’ve known for 42 years, has just passed away.

Like many parents of friends, Kay was not only my friend’s mother, but she was self-appointed to fill that role in my mother’s absence, too. Me being a mischievous child — something that has not altogether gone away — she would discipline me without even thinking about it. She also held me like her own child when I “accidently” found a bee’s nest, tenderly caring for my many stings and bites as I cried.

Kay passed away as a result of a stroke, and at the age of 80, some would say she lived a long life. But like so many people these days, she neglected to inform her family of her wishes should she become incapacitated. The wondering, speculation, and grief her husband, son, and daughter went through could have been avoided by several simple documents, called “advance health care directives.”

The term “advance health care directive” refers to a number of different documents intended to convey a patient’s preferences about health care. Some advance health care directives are intended to appoint a person to make decisions on the patient’s behalf when the patient is unable to do so; some authorize another individual to admit the patient to a nursing home or other type of health care facility under certain circumstances; and some give specific instructions about what kind of and under what circumstances medical care is to be provided or withheld.

A living will is a type of advance health care directive, specifying the life-sustaining treatments a patient wishes to receive or forgo when the patient is no longer capable of making decisions for him- or herself and has an end-stage medical condition or is permanently unconscious. A patient may revoke a living will at any time.

Another health care directive is a do-notresuscitate (DNR) order. A DNR is a medical order to withhold cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in the event of cardiac or respiratory arrest. Typically, a DNR order is entered into a patient’s medical record after a discussion between the physician and the patient and/or a patient’s authorized representative. You don’t have to have a living will to have a DNR order.

These two documents don’t bring much, if any, end of life comfort to the person dying. They do, however, bring untold amounts of comfort to the family members who remain. To know that they are complying with a dying one’s last wishes brings peace in a time of sorrow. I am 47 years old, and I have both a living will and DNR instructions. So does my wife. Should an unexpected event occur, we know what the other’s wishes are.

If you don’t have these simple documents, may I humbly suggest you go visit your lawyer and talk to him or her about advance health care directives. For only pennies on the dollar, you can prepare for a time that none of us really looks forward to — for both yourself, and the ones you care for.

If you don’t have a family lawyer, I invite you to visit the chamber’s website at midcoastmaine.com and select the business directory. We’ve got a fine group of certified professionals that can help you out regardless of your location in the Mid-coast.

UPCOMING EVENTS: Tonight is Chamber After Hours is at Artforms, 128 Maine St., Brunswick. Tours of the production facility, music, refreshments and excellent networking are all part of the evening. Enter Cool As a Moose (128 Maine St., Brunswick) and then tour Artforms’ production facility. The date is Feb. 27, 5 to 7 p.m.

Members of Southern Midcoast Maine, Greater Freeport and Yarmouth chambers are invited to make new connections at a networking event hosted by Linda Bean’s Maine Kitchen and Topside Tavern, 88 Main St., Freeport. The event is March 6, 5 to 7 p.m., and includes refreshments and live music.

“What You Don’t Know About Copyright & Intellectual Property Rights Can Hurt Your Business” is the Business Success Seminar on March 6, 11:30 a.m. to 1p.m. The seminar is sponsored by Eaton Peabody and Just Write Books at the Priority Business Center, 2 Main St., Topsham.

The first Women’s Networking Forum of 2013 is March 7 at the Inn at Brunswick Station, 4 Noble St., Brunswick, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. In addition to lunch, there is a presentation “The Power of a Woman’s Voice — How to Ask for What You Want” by Mandy Schumaker.

Please go to the chamber’s website (www.midcoastmaine.com) to register for all of these events.