Eulogy examples
Complete eulogies you can read from start to finish, each with a short version, a note on why it works and the questions to start your own. The people in them are fictional; the shapes are the ones that work at real funerals.
- A eulogy for MumThank you all for coming today. I'm Claire, Pat's daughter, and looking around this room I can see just how many kitchens, school gates and bus stops…
- A eulogy for DadGood afternoon, everyone. I'm Tom, Keith's son. Dad would be pleased to see so many of you here, and slightly worried about who was paying for the…
- A eulogy for GrandmaThank you for being here. I'm Lucy, and I'm one of Irene's eleven grandchildren, which she would want me to point out is a respectable number. To us…
- A eulogy for GrandadHello, everyone. I'm Ben, and Frank was my grandad. Some of you knew him as Frank, some as Mitch, and quite a few of you, I'm told, as the man who…
- A eulogy for a friendMy name is Hannah. Jo and I met twenty-two years ago in the queue for a gig in our first week at university, when she told me my haircut was brave.…
- A eulogy for a husbandThank you all for coming. I'm Sue, Graham's wife. I wasn't sure I would be able to stand up here today, but Graham always said I had never knowingly…
- A eulogy for a wifeThank you for coming. I'm Martin, and for forty-one years I was lucky enough to be Helen's husband. She would tell you it was forty-one years of…
- A eulogy for a brotherHello, everyone. I'm Gemma, Lee's little sister. For most of my life that was how people introduced me, Lee's little sister, and I never minded,…
- A eulogy for a sisterGood morning. I'm Andrew, Rosie's younger brother. Rosie would want me to keep this short, so I will do my best, but she once talked for forty…
How to use an example
Read one through to hear how a eulogy sounds, then put it away. What makes these work is not the wording but the shape: who you are, a few true stories from their life, one thing only you could tell, and a goodbye that speaks to them directly. Your own details, however ordinary they seem, will mean more to the room than any borrowed line.
When you are ready, the eulogy builder asks the questions one screen at a time and drafts a eulogy from your answers only, to edit and print in large type or as cue cards.
