Funeral Speeches

Establishing bonds with other people grants you a worldly happiness where your petty desires somehow pale into insignificance because of how the other person makes you feel. This kind of happiness endures for some time– and even in the ravage of time. As it has been common since men have started breathing, bonds can be broken which makes the happy memories turn sour that it pains us to a certain degree we can tolerate. But the thing that hurts most is when demise is met– timely or untimely. You somehow become uncertain if the bond must endure. Well, the desperation in us convinces ourselves that the bond must endure and that all the memories made in the past have to be framed in the walls of eternity.

To comfort such an unworldly pain, we rely on sayings and philosophies that speak to us. For example, the saying “What we do in life, echoes in eternity” gives us an idea that perhaps the happiness we shared with other people do not linger in the past alone for the memories are immortalized. Another speech example would be from William Shakespear’s Sonnet 18. If the couplet “So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see. So long lives this, and this and this gives life to thee” is interpreted by a soul that longs for the presence of the demised, the essence of a sonnet can become a little similar with a eulogy.  Sayings like this can give us the comfort to some extent that it doesn’t entirely soothe all the hurtings.

You have probably experienced so absolute a loss as the death of a lover, family, best friend, or even enemy and want to write how great they had been in life and that their life in the afterlife is a good one, too. There are ways for you to express your grief by pinning it down and read it in front of those who will be attending the funeral ceremony. If you are met with tons of uncertainties of what to write in your Eulogy, we offer sample speeches and tips for composing one in this article to keep you guided.

Why do We Eulogize

Be it in ay traditions, it’s common for anyone to express their lamentations through speech. Of course, it is unnecessary to express your grief in an ocean of crowd who could care less about your journey in life that includes the person who has come to pass. But, eulogizing can grant you the comfort from the sadness that continues to linger in you despite you already having known of your beloved’s death. Death is too clumsy and you prefer to be touched by it rather than the people who mean a lot to you. But like clumsiness of other people, that is already beyond our control.

A eulogy is a composition of mixed feelings to the person who has taken the bait of death’s coquetting– well, death is just too effective a coquette for, eventually, we will all be its lovers. You’ll discover a purgation of grievous feelings when you compose one. We all know that sadness can be addictive and become blinded by the comfort it grants us. Actually, the comfort you seek in sadness leads you to a deeper understanding of life but sometimes these realizations can be very depressing. One of the reasons why you need to write a eulogy is for you to be able to last says to the deceased. Cynics would actually consider eulogies as illogical and waste of time during funeral ceremonies since the deceased is deprived of the chance to hear you for another time.

Although eulogies are dedicated to the deceased, the impact they create has the potential to make the living reevaluate the life they are living. The impact is not merely about rethinking their lifestyles; instead, it’s about reshaping their lives by putting into consideration how things are perceived from a late friend, lover, family member, or even enemy. The time for eulogies to be uttered is the time for people to allow themselves to enter the state of vulnerability. The lessons we get in eulogies may give us hope and reopen ourselves to what we have decided to close our doors to. That is why you need to exert effort when crafting one. Don’t let your uncertainties in composing one discourage you. These uncertainties can be overcome, by referring to the sample funeral speeches (which can also come in a form of acceptance speech or farewell speech) we offer below and tips to lighten the gravity of the task.

Tips for Composing Funeral Speeches or Eulogy

Writing a speech is not as hard as you think it is. You have to commit to memory though, you are making a speech to aggrandize the past life of the deceased that has to leave a lasting impression on your audience. Just because it’s a free speech it doesn’t entirely mean that you can just write anything on it. To ensure the effectiveness of your funeral speech or eulogy, here are some tips you have to keep in mind.

1. You may add famous lines from literary works or philosophies. Starting with a famous line and interpreting it in a different way from the way the philosopher or a writer intended it to, gives an immediate impression that the rest of your speech will be as great as its introductory part. Aside from these, you may add a line commonly uttered by the deceased that has left an impact on you. From this, you are allowing your audience to relate to your speech.
2. Mention your most favored moments to the audience. After adding a famous line and explain it to the audience, you can share your favorite moments with the audience. We all know that the way we treat others differs from the type of person who we are with. This allows the audience to feel that the deceased is made up of so many things that other people should know about. Additionally, mentioning your favorite person with the dead person makes your audience think about theirs.
3. You may surf the web for sample speeches but be sure to add a touch of your personality to it. Since we are living in the digital era, you can definitely get any eulogies online. But, don’t you think it would be embarrassing to find out that a person who’s going to eulogize before you has chosen a similar piece. If you resort to this method, you have to make sure that you are going to make a lot of editing. Furthermore, add apply tips number one and two to allow your personality to be embedded in it.
4. A one-page eulogy is enough. Keep in mind that you are not the only one who is going to eulogize. Don’t make it too long or the whole crowd will be stricken with boredom. Imagine yourself listening to a speech that takes three hours to finish. Not so pleasant, huh? Just keep everything short and give others the time to express their lamentations.

9 Samples of Funeral Speeches

We offer you ten sample funeral speeches which you are at full liberty to make any changes should the cited circumstances differ from the memories you shared with your friend, lover, or family member. The tone of the speech can be melancholic, regretful, sympathetic, admiration, and hopeful. Check our ten samples below and feel free to use any of these messages as your inspiration in crafting one.

1. “As is a tale, so is life; not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.” This saying, by Lucius Seneca, has been the philosophy I have lived by for so many years in sheer desperation to be the greatest person I could ever be. Little did I know that this philosophy I live by speaks so much of death than living when (name of the person)’s death was announced. I clearly remembered the day it was announced. It was a fine midday where an endless vibration of my phone filled my apartment. I picked it up, listened to what on the other line has to say and allowed myself to fall face first on the floor as some parts of me had died. I thought to myself how could I be better than before when a part of me had come to pass? My life would never be whole again. I was so filled with emotions I could not understand, yet I did not really have the time to understand what they were. I thought I was going to faint from the unfathomable pain until I was numbed with it. It was really hard to accept fate’s offer to me, but there is nothing that can be done. I decided to look for distractions to keep me busy but found everything in vain. I had always imagined my death as the most painful one I’ll ever experience before I stop existing, but I know now that I was wrong. The death of the person dearest to your heart generously provides you with an unmatched pain. Yet, the desperation in my wish to bring (name of the person) back has helped me rethink the philosophy. What I have to say about (name of the person), with all the good he applied in his deeds I guarantee everyone in here that his life was a life well-lived.
2. When (name of the person) and I were young we used to talk about tattoos and how much we admire the beauty of them. He used to tell me that he’ll get one of these beautiful, meaningful scars someday and proudly show it to everyone. This untimely death of (name of the person) has carved an inside tattoo in me without my feelings’ consent. To my lover and best friend, I had always thought of you as the person who could best teach me the ways to love without conditions and also to live life with lesser worries and just that. But I was wrong. You are the only person who has shown me grief in its absolute form. This will forever scar me that no power of death will ever remove. It was hard for me to take it as a tattoo rather than a regular scar for I was convinced that there is no beauty death. But when parts of sanity have started to recover, I realize now that being scarred for your death is not entirely bad. You are my soul’s tattoo and I take pride in that. The whole of you will be forever weaved with my existence. I love you and promise to love you even better in the afterlife.
3. I, as a human, still get the surprise of how sorrow makes a mess of your existence and take away the life out of you while forcing you to continue to exist. There are many types of sorrows that humans are acquainted with and, even if these sorrows are expected to visit us, a pang of guilt and regret haunts our minds. The worst types of sorrows are those that drain our eyes with tears until there is nothing left to shed. A line in Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid states, “but a mermaid has no tears, and therefore she suffers so much more.” and it’s true. It is as if tears are there for us to alleviate all the intolerable hurtings. I can guarantee you that crying without tears makes you suffer more. I have experienced this first hand upon the death of (name of the person). My sobbing may not seem violent on the outside but the parts of me inside are tortured with extreme sadness. What’s worse is that forgetting becomes difficult. How could I ever forget when we have been together for too long that manifestations of you in the things I indulge with passion are too obvious for my senses and heart to just disregard them. And, too, I don’t want to forget the best person who had ever happened to my life. It might be too late to ask for forgiveness for falling short most time, to thank you for being extra patient to me, and for allowing me to feel the best kind of friendship in this world but I hope your soul is listening to this. The whole of you will forever be carved in my tombstone of a heart.
4. It is said that tragedies are what makes us appreciate the joys of our lives better. But would there still be a part of you left to appreciate a joyful life when you are cursed with an eternal grief from the loss of your mother? I don’t think so. When I was young my mom taught me a lot of things that made me appreciate life, even to appreciate unpleasant memories for these are what makes us stronger and abled in the future. But, her death has taught me otherwise. I know that this death will soon be a memory I will want to burry, yet am certain that it will resurface no matter how hard I do so. How will become stronger than I am now when this sadness has broken me beyond repair? I had already imagined a future that includes you in it and now that you are gone, so are my dreams. I am so sorry mom for there was only my desperation– which was not desperate enough– to save you from your sufferings. May your life in the afterlife be a lot better than how it was here.
5. You, dearest friend, sure have a very good way to make the world cry with great agony. It would be a lie if I tell everyone here that your death did not cause me deaths in each minute of the day on a daily basis. It feels like it was just yesterday where we both had a good time and drank the rest of the night’s hours. Despite this death of yours, I still am fortunate for our memories remain fresh in my mind. Death will never be too powerful to make the memories fade into nothingness for I have always acknowledged this memory well and that forgetting these will be an impossible task. I want to thank you so much for granting me a happiness that suffices this lifetime. If the notion of the afterlife is true, I hope our paths would cross again and that we can chat about how dreadful my life was without you in it. I am indebted with infinite gratitude to you, and I will be paying it back in the life after this.
6. Is there a pain that can parallel to the pain of a lover’s death? For all I know, there is none. This is the kind of pain where you are forced to exist and not actually living. My purpose in life is no more for you, my love, are dead. I hope my days are numbered for imagining a long life with this cumbersome agony will be too much for me to endure. I have always considered love as a blessing and have disregarded the cynic’s remarks about it being a curse. As of the moment, I have good enough reasons to reconsider the cynics’ judgment about it. I know that if you were alive you would tell me otherwise, and although you are right it would take some time for me to recover; thus, recover from this wretched state. I have reached the point of desperation where my what-ifs have led me to delusions such as what if my love was never enough to keep you alive. This agony has inspired the growth of petty wishes. For this death, I offer the sincerest form of condolences to my heart that is now dead.
7. Ladies and gentlemen. we have gathered here today to allow ourselves to bathe in a pool of sadness. Let this day be a day of lamentation for we have lost someone who has put his life on the lines of the battlefield just for us, civilians, to be safe from the harms that this country of ours is threatened with. The only thing that is dead here is his body, but his glory and courage will forever live in our hearts. May your soul seek the peace it deserves knowing that our love for this country will never wane.
8. Never have I ever known that sorrow can break every fiber of an individual’s existence ’till news of your death has spread. There are still so many things I wish to say to you which makes me suffer more from this pain. All day I wallow in the empty sheets of my bed imagining the last time we were both in it. The sight of you on it during mid-day made waking up interesting. Never have I met a man who remains cute despite the loud snoring and how lovely your face was in a state so peaceful that I dared not disturbed. I have wept day and night, and I am uncertain of when this weeping will come to an end. There has to be an end to this but it doesn’t really matter for now. I will weep until my heart forgets to do so.
9. The only reason why Time is considered too harsh is that it carries with it the touch of death. Grandma had lived a long life yet me being selfish and possessive about her is not helping me cope the emptiness that her death has caused me. This sadness has cast a fatal blow to my will to live, yet I fully know that if grandma were here she will tell me to continue to live. So, I will. I am going to do all my very best so that when grandma is looking down on us from heaven she will be happy knowing that I am living a life of contentment and happiness. Although being happy is hard as of the moment, I guarantee you grandma that I will recover from this with haste.

We are always just a reach away from Death’s grasps and, although we are touched by it unpredictably, sufferings from the pain of loss is expected to linger with us for long– though the pain diminishes in time as the death of this pain will be met. Composing a funeral message to express your grief is a good help to recover hastily. Always remember the tips when creating one so that the task’s difficulties will be alleviated.