How to write a eulogy without sounding like you’re reading a resume

Love Nat For You | Sunshine Coast, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Ipswich and Toowoomba | Celebrant, MC & Coordinator

One of the biggest worries people have before giving a eulogy is getting emotional.

But interestingly, the thing that usually disconnects a room isn’t emotion.

It’s distance.

When a eulogy becomes too formal or overly chronological, people stop feeling connected to the person being remembered.

Because the most meaningful eulogies rarely sound like biographies.

They sound like someone real talking about someone they genuinely knew.

The strongest eulogies usually focus less on achievements and more on:

• personality

• habits

• humour

• little details

• stories people recognise immediately

The way they answered the phone. The phrase they said constantly. The oddly specific thing they carried everywhere. The small moments that made them feel unmistakably themselves.

Those are the details that bring people into the room emotionally.

You also don’t need to tell every story.

One meaningful story told properly will always land more powerfully than ten rushed memories stacked together.

And contrary to what people think, pauses are okay. Nobody expects perfection at a funeral. They expect honesty.

The most memorable eulogies are rarely the most polished.

They’re the ones that make people think: “Yes. That’s exactly who they were.”