Writing a Eulogy or a Personal Tribute.
Writing a speech for a funeral is a very difficult task. It is hard to convey someone’s life time achievements and express how much they meant to everyone in a speech.
People often struggle with finding the right words or feeling as though they have done justice to the person.
The one thing you must remember is that it doesn’t have to be perfect or even serious it just has to be from the heart.
Here are some tips to help you get started.
What do you want to say ?
Decide on whether you want to talk about the person , his accomplishments, his effect on people and friends etc.
Collect the facts about his life, where he was born, his family, his work.
You can use specific moments that you remember to give you a starting point ... " I first met Jeff in 1963 ... "
Think about what was important to the person and use this as inspiration.
How are you going to convey the speech ?
A speech can be solemn or light hearted it depends on the person you are talking about and also yourself.
Think why you may have been asked to give the speech, is it because people would know you could show the deceased in a light that everyone would remember?
Once you've decided on how to convey the eulogy it will help you collect the relevant stories of the person and there life.
Write in segments
This will help you to remember what you have written but it will also help you to cut bits out if someone has already mentioned them before you.
Practice
This is much more difficult that it may seem because of who you are talking about and why you are writing the speech.
Possibly the best advice is just give it a read through and say it out loud to yourself and then put it to one side.
Remember - NO ONE WILL BE JUDGING YOU ON YOUR SPEECH.
It can useful to give a copy of your speech to the person holding the service in case you find it to difficult to continue.
Most people at the funeral will be grateful to just hear kind words spoken about the person they loved, they probably will struggle to take in everything your saying because of the emotional state they are in themselves.
Try and stay calm – have a cup of water on hand - and some tissues - and remember that if you talk from the heart it will all be OK.