Eulogy – A Way To Remember and Celebrate Someone

Because I am in the business of helping people create Legacy video biographies and tribute videos, people often want to share eulogies they have written for others. Yesterday a friend of mine sent me one that she had written for her mother, who passed away earlier this year. It was a three page Word document that had me in tears. Not because of any sadness for this woman’s passing but for the joy of having a daughter who knew her so well that she could so beautifully capture the essence of who she was in the world.

A eulogy is an important part of our social custom of acknowledging and memorializing the recently deceased. Most are recited as part of the funeral service and usually by a relative or close family friend. They provide a time to express love, share anecdotes and provide a portrait of who that person was in the world, particularly to the person who writes them. My friend’s eulogy to her mother told of how she touched not only her daughter, community and family, but shared how she grew up, met her husband, her work career and her hobbies. I never met my friend’s mother, but I certainly got a profound sense of who she was after reading this. Another friend of mine’s father recently passed, and he too shared the eulogy he wrote with me. It gave me a glimpse of a warm funny man who adored his family. I have read many eulogies over the past few years and while they are all essentially similar in how they acknowledge, each provides a glimpse into the life of someone that is now gone. I still cherish the eulogy that my father wrote on the passing of his mother, and find myself reading it from time to time, as it helps me reconnect with many memories of my grandmother.

My friend Pam Vetter is a Funeral Celebrant in Los Angeles. She helps people create the perfect eulogy by working with the family to design the ceremony, write the eulogy and even deliver it if need be.

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