Farewell to Grandmother – Eulogy

Now that almost a year has passed since my grandmothers death, the pain has subsided somewhat and I’m not reduced to tears at the very thought of her. But what still remains… is the surge of panic that overcame me as my cousins nominated me to be the grandchild that would delivery a eulogy on behalf of us all. If you also have felt that gripping fear, read on… you’re not alone there.

My nana was well loved among her whole family, and at her passing we all flocked from all over the world to be together as a family and help with the many preparations for her funeral. It was going to be a large funeral due to my grandmothers standing in the community. She was very involved in her church and local charity groups so we knew her funeral would attract people from all walks of life, religion and culture. As the family delegated out jobs I was so pleased that I had been given the role of delivering the eulogy on behalf of all her grandchildren. I was pleased… and petrified.

My first hurdle was to overcome the nerves that I could feel gathering in my belly. I’m not too bad at public speaking as I do some presentations to my work colleagues and in my church. But the overwhelming fear I had was that I was speaking to an audience that would include civic dignitaries, elders within the church, teachers and classmates I had grown up with and worst of all, my entire family.

But I knew that I had to toughen up to get through this one. And the thing that made me realize that it was going to be alright was that it’s a funeral. It’s not a sales presentation, you’re not trying to convince someone of your point of view and you’re not there to display how intelligent or articulate or successful you are. It’s not about you at all. It’s about the person who has gone and the hole that their passing has left in your life… and the lives of every person gathered in the room. It is with that thought that I was able to control my nerves. And if I were to cry throughout the talk, then that shows that there is actual emotion behind what I was saying. They were not just words, but they were real and raw emotions, people expect that at funerals.

Now that I had come to a place where I wasn’t fearful about the delivery of the eulogy, I had to put together something that would be coherent and well structured, but also emotive and personal. I immediately set to work on the internet looking for help on how to structure a eulogy and the types of things that are appropriate to include. I found a great article by Michelle Rudge called Grandmother – Eulogy of Love that outlines some of the different ways you can speak about your grandmother. The article pointed me to other resources that would be helpful too.

Before struggling to write your speech, check out another great article called Eulogy Quotes – Are Eulogy Quotes Appropriate? , it outlines some quotes you could use in your speech.