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Funeral Speeches 101 - Preparing Your
Funeral Speech
By Margaret Marquisi
A speech at funeral may just be the hardest thing for
some people and the easiest for others, especially those
who have a lot of experience in public speaking. The key
here is to be prepared, so that means funeral speeches
shouldn't be rushed; they should be well-thought off.
You can come up with a good speech at funeral services
if you incorporate it your memories together. Remember
your memories with the person who once lived and laughed
with you. Share it to the people who cares for that
person and they will be delighted to hear. That's always
common in a funeral speech, and almost all of the time
it works in catching people's attentions.
Do not prolong your speech. People will get bored if you
say the same things repeatedly. If you do that, you will
only make your speech at funeral predictable; your
listeners would rather take a coffee break than listen
more to you. Keep it concise. However, try not limiting
your description about the one who passed away by saying
adjectives only like "she was really friendly and nice."
Explain more on why you think she was friendly, what
made you say she was friendly and how nice was she to
you. People would like to know that since they will also
remember how nice that person was to them too.
Do not just go to the podium or in front of people
without having your outlined speech at your hands. It's
very hard for some who are not used to speaking in front
of a lot of people. Mind block usually happens and they
end up looking silly because they seem to not know what
to say. An outline will surely help you gather your
thoughts and explain them thoroughly. If you want, you
can also print your speech and glance at it once in a
while.
Some people try to make their eulogies or funeral speech
informal but still informative. Informal speeches can
contain something that will make people laugh or turn
seriousness into something a happy thought. For some, it
is advisable to make people laugh with you speech since
in that way you can get more connection to people. It
also makes them awake and attentive. You want your
speech to be something memorable even to the listeners
since your speech also contains shared memories with the
one that passed away. You want to tell people how great
it was to have that person around and you can tell that
in many different ways. It doesn't mean that if a speech
is informal, it is disrespecting already. Most informal
speech at funeral services still value respect
especially because they respect the one who had passed
away.
It's not enough to just stand there and say something
that people will forget, even worse if after a few days
you forgot what you've said too. Stand there and talk
about the one who had passed away with confidence and
respect. Share inspiring words that other people won't
forget too. In that way, you keep that person alive in
your hearts.
Margaret Marquisi is a retired writer and fulltime
grandmother. To learn more about funeral speeches or
presenting a speech at a funeral, visit her website. |
