Eulogies: A Strategy

Being asked to give eulogies for funerals at funeral homes in Rocky Mount, VA can often be nerve-wracking, but it’s important to remember that you’ve been asked by the family of someone who has died to give a eulogy because they recognize you as someone who can attest to the character of their loved one and will bring attention to the impact they made on the world around them. 

If you’re unsure how to organize a fantastic eulogy, there is a very simple strategy that you can use to make sure that you cover every aspect of the deceased’s life in a tribute that will be meaningful to the bereaved family and to the mourners who are attending the funeral. 

The first part of your eulogy should include highlights from the deceased person’s life. It’s important to focus on highlights that are uplifting and encouraging. Although life is full of ups and downs and successes and failures, focusing on positive highlights of the deceased person’s life will provide comfort to both the grieving family and the other mourners. 

Life events are included in highlights. These would be things like marriage, military service, professional recognition, and the births of children. 

Major accomplishments are also included in highlights about a deceased person. These can include things like educational achievements, career achievements, personal achievements, and community achievements. For example, if the deceased completed an undergraduate degree or advanced college degree at a very young age or at an advanced age, that would be a major accomplishment. Other examples of major accomplishments might include promotions at work, organizational activities within the community, running – and finishing – marathons, and setting records in a leisure activity like golfing, tennis, or fishing. 

If you need help with these, be sure to sit and talk with the family to see what they believe the highlights of their loved one should include. 

Next, your eulogy should focus on the attributes of the deceased person. Personality and character are the attributes that make each of us unique. Some people have personalities that stand out in the mind of everyone who knew them. Other people have character traits that are immediately associated with them. 

The key to this part of your eulogy for the deceased person is to show the special talents and gifts they had that made them so valuable and that left a lasting mark on the lives they were a part of. You should also focus on the things that mattered most in life to the deceased. These might include things like family, faith, integrity, compassion, empathy, and service. 

If you need help narrowing these down, there are some questions you can answer about the deceased? What were there favorite things? What did they enjoy most in life? What brought a smile to their face? What made them sad? How were they different from everyone else? 

The final part of your eulogy strategy should be to include your own and others’ memories of the deceased. If you were a lifelong friend, then you probably have memories from your younger years with the deceased that their family may not know about, but would be pleased to hear about. Remember that the memories should show something unique about that the deceased and perhaps something that people may not have been aware of that they did without a lot of fanfare that was beneficial or helpful. 

For more guidance on eulogies for funerals at funeral homes in Rocky Mount, VA, our compassionate and experienced staff at Conner-Bowman Funeral Home & Crematory is here to help. You can come by our funeral home at 62 Virginia Market Place Dr., Rocky Mount, VA, 24151 or you can contact us today at (540) 334-5151 to plan ahead.