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Planning a Speech at a Funeral
By Budda Oliver
A funeral is a time of mourning for a deceased loved one
but it is also more than that. If you have been asked,
or have volunteered, to give a speech at the interment
of a friend or a family member and are looking for
guidance on how to express yourself, first ask yourself
this question: what is a funeral? Here, you can repeat
that a funeral is a time of mourning for a deceased love
one.
For now, leave out the part about whether or not you
loved the person. Hopefully you do, but if you do not,
hold your lack of love in abeyance for the time being.
Hopefully, in writing the speech you will find something
in them that you love, if you did not see anything
before. So, you start with: a funeral is a time of
mourning for a departed love one. But what else is it?
It's been said that it is more than that, and surely,
you can think of other things that are a memorial
service is. This will be how you find out what to write
in your speech.
What else can a funeral be? It can also be a wake. A
wake is an Irish-Catholic ceremony where people gather
at the body of a departed love one to remember their
life and tell stories about the person's life. What
happens when you remember a person's life- is that more
than mourning their death? In remembering a person's
life, you will be mourning them because they are no
longer alive, and you will be sad, but in remembering,
even in sadness, you will be unable to forget the great
happiness this person brought into the world. You may
even laugh at some of the things they did as a human.
Remembering a dead person and laughing, even while you
are crying, can keep their memory alive, and keep their
life a living thing.
What else is a funeral? For you, and for everyone else,
a funeral is a possibility to remember the deceased
person whom you are commemorating. Some people will be
at the funeral only because they were invited and they
are expected to attend. People are expected to attend
memorial services even if they did not know or like the
deceased very much, but if they are invited they are
expected to go and they often do. In your speech, you
have the possibility of explaining the departed's life
as if you are talking to a room of strangers who may or
may not like the deceased. You have the opportunity to
tell the story of the deceased's life and what it meant
to you, personally. A death is a personal thing for the
deceased, and for everyone else.
You have now that a memorial service is a time of
mourning, but it can also be a time of remembrance,
laughter, and happiness. And that not everyone at the
interment will know the deceased very well, but that you
have the opportunity to introduce the deceased to them,
and help them get to know each other. As a speaker at a
funeral, you have the opportunity to show everyone what
the departed meant to you. Take your opportunity
seriously, and put all of your thought into your speech,
and it will turn out very well.
Mr. Oliver is a marketing agent of Morrissett Funeral
Home. The funeral home provides funeral services
throughout the Richmond Virginia area. For more
information on their Funeral Home and Services please
visit their website. |
