Summary
If someone has lost a friend they might decide to give a eulogy at the funeral. I’ve given them 6 great steps they can follow that will help them plan out the eulogy.
Have you ever stood up in front of a large crowd before to give a speech? It can be nerve-racking and before you know it you could start shaking uncontrollably.
No matter how hard you try to focus, the words don’t seem to come out right. If you think speaking in a normal situation sounds hard then wait until you have to go up and give a eulogy at your friend’s funeral.
Not only will you feel nervous, but you’ll be grieving at the same time.
I know you’re reading this because you don’t want to mess everything up. Try to relax because it’s not actually that hard to give a great eulogy, but only if you prepare yourself.
Once you step up and start speaking the jitters will disappear because you’ve already done the hard work. In order to help you deliver the best eulogy possible we’re going to look at a few things you should do to prepare.
Your friend is going to be looking over you with a big smile on their face when you speak at their funeral.
Go over your own memories
You’re going to need something nice to say about them and to do that it will require you to sit down and remember everything you possibly can.
Because they were your good friend I’m sure you will have lots of things popping into your mind, but try to write down everything you will be able to say in front of their family. That means you should keep some of the more extreme stories to yourself.
Start speaking to people
Go around their family and ask them to share some stories with you that they can remember. When you start speaking to people you get a feel for what memories are special to them.
You never know if some of their stories might trigger some memories of your own. You can tailor some of your eulogy around what would make their family smile and it will make them feel a little happier on the day, if only for a few minutes.
Organize everything
Once you have all the stories you need it’s now time to organize everything. It’s quite hard coming up with a plan, but an easy way to get started is by writing each little story on a piece of card.
If you lay them out you can easily shuffle them around to try and come up with a decent structure. Choose the stories you want to use and get rid of the rest.
Write it up
Now it’s time to write your first draft because once you start writing it down properly you will notice that everything comes together. You’ll need a beginning and an end with a few stories in between.
You won’t be able to spend hours up there, so decide how long the eulogy is going to be and try to guess how much you’ll be able to say in that timeframe.
Practice a lot
If you practice your eulogy dozens of times before the funeral you will end up being able to recite it all without looking at anything, so it’s important that you don’t skip this step.
When you’re reciting your eulogy you can time yourself and if you are running over the time limit it’s easy to take one or two things out.
Make last minute changes
Before you deliver the eulogy in front of everyone you still have time to make a few changes. After rehearsing it for so long you should have different ideas floating around in your head.
Once you are sure that it can’t be improved you should write it down. You can either write out the full eulogy on a piece of paper, or you can use prompt cards if you find them easier to read from.
Featured images:
License: Creative Commons
image source
License: Creative Commons image source
License: Creative Commons image source
License: Creative Commons image source
License: Creative Commons image source
License: Creative Commons image source
The author of this post, Keith Dunham, is a part of the team at Abbey Cremation Service, a company that provides cremation services in CT. She has a keen interest in topics like family relationships, and enjoys sharing her ideas via blogging.