If you haven’t discussed your plans with your family members and let them know what you want, and either given them copies of the documents that support your plans or told them where they are, it’s all for naught.

I really enjoy doing jigsaw puzzles — studying the shapes, finding the ones with straight edges first, grouping by color and seeing the image slowly emerge as one piece locks into another. When I find that elusive piece that holds an entire section together, I experience a small sense of accomplishment, which keeps me going until the whole puzzle is complete.

The biggest puzzle I know, and the one that most people don’t want to take off the shelf, is the one about the end of life. Death is a puzzle every single one of us will face, but most people will put off talking about it as long as possible. We can choose to address the unavoidable when we have plenty of time and all our faculties. If not, we, and especially our loved ones, will most likely face a chaotic, stressful situation when our time is up.

When death comes for me, it won’t wait until I’ve pulled together my exit strategy. I’ll be gone, and the circumstances surrounding my death may not have been to my liking as far as where I met death — hospital, home, or somewhere else. The medical personnel may or may not have administered life-prolonging treatments that I did or did not want.

Deborah Adams, nursing director for Partners in Care Home Health and Hospice, relayed the story of a woman who, rather than leaving clear instructions and written documents, left a note for her family simply saying, “Sorry I left such a mess.”

I don’t want that to be my last message to my loved ones.

There is a plethora of helpful information out there, particularly since the advent of the internet. Just go online and search “end of life.” There are enough websites and links related to the subject, it will seem like you just started a 5,000-piece puzzle that is round and all blue.

Don’t give up. Help is available to assist getting your affairs in order. Before starting the process, take time to answer some important questions, the answers to which will help guide you in a number of decisions that will need to be made.

What do I want the rest of my life to look like? What are my core values? Who am I as a person? What and who is important to me? What are my definitions of a “good quality of life” and a “good death?”

Once there is clarity around the answers to those questions, the job of putting your affairs in order will honor those things that are most important to you. You will be leaving a final gift for those who will be with you as you approach death, as well as afterward.

Your loved ones won’t have to guess what kind of care you want as your life comes to a close. They will have a clear road map of where all your documents are, what you want done and not done and where, and who should be notified. The more you do beforehand, the less work you are leaving for your loved ones. They will, instead, be able to grieve your death.

“Do it now while you have time and cognition. Be diligent and mindful in how you want things to go. Don’t put that on someone else,” advised Jim Moran, real estate broker with Morris Coldwell Banker in Bend.

Moran told of his own real-life experiences of not being fully prepared as his parents grew older. He thought he’d taken care of everything, but through trial and error found there were a number of things that hadn’t been properly addressed.

“It’s a scary issue. Nobody wants to face it. It’s even worse, though, when you are out of time and have to navigate through an often segmented system with little or no trusted advisors on hand,” he warned.

Moran’s experience prompted him to take formal training to become a Senior Real Estate Specialist (SRES) so he could help others avoid some of the difficulties he experienced. The focus of the training is the unique circumstances facing transitioning seniors, their families, and caregivers.

Working with Moran gives clients and their families access to many more resources than are available from a regular agent, and all at no additional cost. If Moran doesn’t know the answer, he can point a client in the right direction to get it.

Personal experience also prompted certified financial planner John Strassman of Bend to offer an extra service to his clients. He had heard about the Family Love Letter (FLL) at a seminar where colleagues talked about the difference the FLL was making in the lives of their clients by helping them relay their wishes to their family in a time of confusion caused by incapacitation or death.

“When my brother died five years ago, and I was left to settle his estate, I had no idea of where to look for a will,” Strassman recounted.

If Strassman’s brother had completed something like the FLL, everything would have been spelled out and his job as executor would have been much less stressful and time-consuming.

“I swore no one else would go through this,” Strassman remembered promising.

Since then, he has been offering several seminars a year along with an estate attorney, a CPA, and a real estate agent. They discuss and answer questions regarding end-of-life planning. Each attendee goes home with a 38-page book that walks them through gathering and organizing all the information about themselves and their life that loved ones will need to settle their affairs. There is also a section for personal notes such as how they want to be remembered and what they considered to be the most important things in life.

The FLL does not replace a will, but it does leave loved ones a wonderful gift, and all it requires is some time to complete it.

“By pulling these important documents together and leaving important details in one place — email passwords, codes to the safe, etc. — men and women are getting their house in order for the good of those they care about most,” Strassman said.

A more recent development in end-of-life planning is the appearance of websites offering similar services, all done digitally, some that charge an annual fee and others that are free. As life circumstances change, information can be added, deleted, or modified so it is always current. People of your choosing can be granted access to any or all of the sections, so even if an adult child lives elsewhere, he or she can access necessary information to handle your affairs. Two such websites are www.MyLifeandWishes.com and www.everplans.com, which provide a free checklist of documents to gather before you start your plan.

There are a number of books and workbooks available online as well to guide you through organizing your life and having a written record of all the important information. AARP produces a book called “Checklist for My Family” available on Amazon, that helps document everything. According to AARP, 8,000 baby boomers a day are turning 65, and more and more services are being made available to assist them with their desires for end-of-life.

Understanding the importance of having a documented exit strategy is the first step in end-of-life planning, and the best place to start. In upcoming issues of Ageless we will continue to examine a variety of topics that all need to be taken into consideration when thinking about end-of-life planning. We will discuss living arrangements and caregiving; wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and ethical wills; advance directives, POLST forms, and organ donation; hospice and palliative care; death with dignity; and funeral and burial plans.

The goal is to inform, educate, and empower you, our readers, to craft a useful and thoughtful end-of-life plan, so you are free to enjoy the rest of your life, knowing your puzzle is complete.