Tips on delivering a eulogy
Posted on January 25th, 2018
Standing up at your loved one’s funeral and making an impassioned eulogy about their life can be hugely daunting for many people. You obviously want to do justice to their life and personality, but may also be wary of holding yourself together through an emotionally-charged event. Here at Freedom Funerals, when someone comes to us and just cannot face the thought of talking about their loved one at their funeral we offer to do it for them.
From our personal experience, here’s some of our top tips:
Write it all down
Knowing where to start with a eulogy is tough, but writing it like a speech is prudent. Start with outlining your link to the person before talking about the person’s career, big life events, achievements and anecdotes. Think of moments that made you smile as reciting these with your emotion will connect with others and have them reminiscing. Get everything you want to say down as you can always read it our verbatim if you need too.
Practice, practice, practice
As with any public speaking, practice is hugely important to avoid faltering when the time comes. By practising a eulogy out loud it will give you clues about what parts do not flow and become potentially tough to deliver on the day. You will also become so familiar with it that it will become less about emotion and more about delivering a talk. It can also work as a cathartic process of coming to terms with your feelings in the lead up to an emotional day.
Plan B
No matter how focused you may be on delivering the eulogy emotion may overcome you. It is important to have someone prepared to console you or even take over if you cannot continue (this can even be your funeral director or celebrant). Having a humorous story or tale that you can recount may help bring you into a more positive frame of mind. If you know that you will struggle with finishing try not to make eye contact with other funeral-goers as their emotion may affect you further.
Speak to the Freedom Funeral team today if you are struggling with the thought of writing or delivering a eulogy we would be delighted to help – 01206 862963.
