How to Do a Great Eulogy

At Kettering, OH funeral homes, you may be asked to do a eulogy for a family member, friend, or coworker who has died. The people closest to the person who’s died are the ones who are most often tapped for giving eulogies during the funeral services.

Giving a great eulogy may seem like a daunting task. It may be one of the most anxiety-ridden things you will ever have to do because it combines two things that the majority of people would rather avoid: death and public speaking. What do you say? How do you hit the right notes? How do you capture the life of a loved one in a meaningful way in just a few short minutes? There are several things that can help you create a great eulogy for someone who has died.

One tip for doing a great eulogy is to relax. Your eulogy is a memorial for someone you love and care about. It doesn’t have to be perfect to honor and respect the memory of the person you’re eulogizing.

Be careful, however, about getting so relaxed that you decide to go to the other end of spectrum and ad lib the eulogy. Don’t forget that there is a very strong emotional component to death. Your heart’s broken and you are grieving the loss of someone who mattered to you. If you try to ad lib the eulogy, the anguish and the grief will come pouring out and it may be an incoherent and incomplete mess, because that’s what happens on the inside when we are experiencing deep emotions. Kettering Funeral Home respects the emotional state of the bereaved family and is always ready to assist throughout the process of preparing your eulogy.

Write the eulogy down. Rehearse it. And rehearse it. And rehearse it. Take what you’ve written with you and read from it while you’re giving the eulogy. No matter how many times you rehearse it, the combination of grief and stage fright will inevitably make your brain go blank at some point, and having your eulogy right in front of you will help you to continue without missing a beat.

Remember that a eulogy is not a mini-life biography of the deceased. Instead, it’s personal and paints a portrait of what your loved one was like and the relationship the two of you had together. Use stories. Use gentle humor. Use poignancy.

If you need help jumpstarting your eulogy, engage the deceased’s family and friends to share their most favorite memories and stories about their loved one. Feel free to include those as part of your own story that you embed in your eulogy.

Humor is okay if it’s not mean. For example, if you say you’re a graduate of your dad’s school of fashion because you also believe that everything goes with black, the entire room is sure to laugh fondly and warmly. But humor that is dark, mean, or disrespectful is never appropriate for a eulogy.

Eulogies typically are no more than 10 minutes or so. Anything longer will lose the mourners. So, use your time wisely to make sure that you share what you believe is most important for people to remember about your loved one.

Make sure you’re prepared when it’s your turn to speak. Print your eulogy in super giant type so you can easily read it and articulate your words and speak slowly. Introduce yourself and give your relationship to the deceased (if people don’t know what it is) and thank people for coming. And then give your eulogy.

If you want to learn more about giving eulogies at Kettering, OH funeral homes, our compassionate and experienced staff at Glickler Funeral Home & Cremation Service can help. You can come by our funeral home at 1849 Salem Ave., Dayton, OH 45406, or you can contact us today at (937) 278-4287. Discover more about our compassionate funeral and cremation services by visiting https://www.glicklerfuneralhome.com/find-us-on-the-web/. Our website is here to guide you through this challenging time, providing the support and information you need to honor your loved ones with dignity and care.