Even for experienced public speakers, delivering a eulogy can be overwhelming. I've delivered over a thousand sermons and officiated at hundreds of funerals, yet when my father died, I said 'no' when asked if I wanted to speak. I just couldn't. But later wished that I had.
At my father's funeral, like at most, the minister gave the eulogy. His minister did a good enough job but he didn't know him intimately - only a few years. His telling of dad's life story just didn't do the job. "Good enough" wasn't what we all wanted. We wanted 'great.'
I find that it is almost always preferable when a family member stands up to speak - or a close friend. Those people knew the one lying there so well. They speak from the heart even though speaking in these circumstances is terribly hard to do. I've heard some wonderful funeral speeches and some that didn't do justice to the one who had died. They didn't tell his or her life story. Didn't eulogize their loved one fully. Sometimes, even, those eulogies are more about the speaker than the deceased.
That, of course, is what motivated me to begin The Eulogy Writers. I believe that every person deserves to have his or her story told in the best possible way and know that most mourners don't have the time to put something fully together in the two or three days they have. There is just too much to do and the grief is too fresh and the memories are so powerful. Words just don't come or won't come.
I can't deliver the eulogy for everyone who needs to have a great one presented, but I can write a eulogy that does the job. I've put together a wonderful (if I do say so myself) questionnaire that, when completed, covers just about every possible aspect of the loved one's life. From the responses to those questions, I begin to know the loved one almost as well as one of the family members (sans the love and experience with them, of course). It is my goal that, when one of my eulogies is given, guests and fellow mourners will comment on how well it described dad or mom or grandma to the one who had the courage to stand and speak.
Eulogy writing is a unique honor. To be asked to deliver a eulogy or funeral speech is an opportunity to be taken. When mourners can't do it themselves, I want to help.
At my father's funeral, like at most, the minister gave the eulogy. His minister did a good enough job but he didn't know him intimately - only a few years. His telling of dad's life story just didn't do the job. "Good enough" wasn't what we all wanted. We wanted 'great.'
I find that it is almost always preferable when a family member stands up to speak - or a close friend. Those people knew the one lying there so well. They speak from the heart even though speaking in these circumstances is terribly hard to do. I've heard some wonderful funeral speeches and some that didn't do justice to the one who had died. They didn't tell his or her life story. Didn't eulogize their loved one fully. Sometimes, even, those eulogies are more about the speaker than the deceased.
That, of course, is what motivated me to begin The Eulogy Writers. I believe that every person deserves to have his or her story told in the best possible way and know that most mourners don't have the time to put something fully together in the two or three days they have. There is just too much to do and the grief is too fresh and the memories are so powerful. Words just don't come or won't come.
I can't deliver the eulogy for everyone who needs to have a great one presented, but I can write a eulogy that does the job. I've put together a wonderful (if I do say so myself) questionnaire that, when completed, covers just about every possible aspect of the loved one's life. From the responses to those questions, I begin to know the loved one almost as well as one of the family members (sans the love and experience with them, of course). It is my goal that, when one of my eulogies is given, guests and fellow mourners will comment on how well it described dad or mom or grandma to the one who had the courage to stand and speak.
Eulogy writing is a unique honor. To be asked to deliver a eulogy or funeral speech is an opportunity to be taken. When mourners can't do it themselves, I want to help.
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