When Vivial Lopez’s grandmother was on life support, her family was faced with many difficult decisions. Her grandmother did not have an advance directive, so her family did not know her final wishes.
The experience of navigating her grandmother’s end-of-life plan without any direction led Lopez to advocate for families to prepare advance directives - especially those in Black and brown communities.
Approximately only one in three adults complete an advance directive for end-of-life care. Lopez works with the Gateway End-of-Life Coalition to empower members of the St. Louis community to navigate death through quality end-of-life care.
“By the time someone is 18 – when you’re considered a legal adult – you should have an advance directive,” Lopez said.
An advance directive is a document based around an individual’s values and final wishes. The document is only valid when an individual is incapacitated and no longer has the ability to speak for themselves.
Individuals can also write an advance directive themselves and have it notarized to make it legal.
“It’s like a gift for the living to give their loved ones to be able to honor their final wishes,” Lopez said.
Research has shown that Black people are less likely to fill out an advance directive.
Lopez aspires to help other families prevent difficult situations, such as deciding what to do if a loved one is on life support. She asks questions to people and their families that they would not typically think about. Lopez facilitates and navigates the conversations about death in an informing, yet comfortable and engaging way.
“I think about some of the history in our country around the health care industry and Black folks and how there is a mistrust, as well,” said Lopez. “A lot of people are concerned about what’s really going to happen or if there is an ulterior motive with it [filling out advance directives].”
Each time Lopez facilitates conversations about death with families, she observes that they learn something new about a loved one and their wishes for end-of-life care.
“Like it or not, we’re all going to leave this earth,” Lopez said. “And we want to make sure we’re honoring our loved ones.”
To learn more about tough conversations navigating death and how to fill out an advance directive, listen to St. Louis on the Air on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube or click the play button below.
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Jada Jones is our production assistant. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
