Using a Eulogy Template – How to Create a Eulogy Quickly and Simply,
and Yet Have it Still Be Meaningful

Using a eulogy template is a high-risk strategy – unless you pick the right one.

You don’t want to sound like you’re reading somebody else’s speech, about somebody else’s life – what a dishonour that would be to the person who has died, to those who are listening, and even to yourself. For example, if you ended up saying how happy someone was as a child, when actually they weren’t, it could be awkward and embarrassing for everyone present.

And yet at its best a eulogy template can be a clear and simple format which you can quickly and easily adapt and make your own.

If you spent long enough on Google you could probably find a free eulogy template thrown together by someone who’s been to a handful of funerals, and which covers one or two situations. But speaking to you as someone who as written, advised on and delivered over 100 eulogies, in every possible situation, I strongly suggest that for such an important occasion you use something more appropriate and professional.

I myself have painstakingly reviewed all of those 100 eulogies and come up with a simple template which covers every imaginable situation. In fact, in my downloadable guide How to Write and Deliver a Great Eulogy in 6 Simple Steps, I present two full, fill-in-the-blanks templates (one for a male, one for a female) which you can print out, complete and be ready to deliver in less than 60 minutes.

I’m not going to reproduce the entire template here, because it really was a huge amount of work and I think it’s fair enough to charge a small fee for it. But here are two excerpts from the female version, both of which will give you a flavour of how the template works.

(Where words appear in [square brackets] simply delete and/or insert as appropriate.)

TO START

“Firstly, thank you for being here today. It means a lot to [me / us / the family] that you are here, and it would have meant a lot to [Name / my mother / my sister…] too.

[Name in full] was born on [date], in [place]. [Name] was the [oldest / youngest / middle / only] child of [parents’ names], and had [one / two / three] sisters, [names] and [one / two / three] brothers, [names]. It may be easy for many of us, used to thinking of [Name] as a woman in her [forties and fifties / fifties and sixties / sixties and seventies…] to forget what she must have been like as a vulnerable, new-born baby girl. And yet, of course, that is exactly what she was.

At school [Name] [excelled / was dedicated / was bored / did well without trying hard…] because [she loved to learn / she valued education and what it can do for you / she preferred to do practical things / of her natural talent…], and the things she loved most about that time included [history / sports / annoying her teachers / spending time with her friends [names] / dreaming about her plans for the future, which were…].”

(there then follow sections on the person’s interests, education, friends, family, children, passions, character traits, etc., until…)

TO END

“As you know, [Name] had been ill for some time, and so the end, when it came, was [a shock but not entirely unexpected / in some ways welcome, relieving her as it did of  her pain].

OR

As you know, [Name’s] death came suddenly and unexpectedly, and so is perhaps all the more hard for us to adjust to and accept. And yet the same time, we can perhaps be grateful that she did not suffer any prolonged illness, and was living a full life [right up until the end / until very near the end].

On behalf of the family I would like to thank [the medical staff at hospital/hospice, carers, anyone else who has helped] for what they have done for [Name] and the family in recent [days / times]. And I’d like to invite you to come back to [house / hotel / reception] after the service for refreshments, and to continue sharing your memories of [Name].”

For more information on my downloadable guide How to Write and Deliver a Great Eulogy in 6 Simple Steps, complete with poems, quotations, public speaking tips and money-back satisfaction guarantee, click here.

To buy the guide straight away, click here.