Eulogy Template: A Free Outline You Can Fill In and Deliver

The Five-Section Eulogy Template

Most strong eulogies follow the same basic architecture, whether the speaker is a professional or someone writing their first speech at two in the morning. The template below gives you that structure. Fill in each section with your own details and you will have a complete, deliverable speech.

Section 1: The Opening (2–3 sentences)

Start with something specific — a story, a detail, an image — that drops the room straight into who this person was. Avoid "we are gathered here today" and dictionary definitions.

Prompt: Think of one moment that captures the person. What were they doing? What did they say?

Example opening: "My mother kept a running list of every bird she spotted in the garden. She was up to 47 species by last spring. She approached the rest of life with that same stubborn attentiveness — once she decided something mattered, she paid attention."

Section 2: Who They Were (3–5 sentences)

Give the room a picture of the person's character. Not a resume — pick two or three qualities and show them through actions.

Prompt: What was the thing people always said about them? What would a stranger notice within the first ten minutes of meeting them?

Section 3: The Core Stories (2–3 short stories)

This is the heart of the eulogy. Choose stories that reveal something true — not just what happened, but what it meant. Aim for one funny story, one tender story, and one that captures their strength or resilience.

Prompt: What is one story you have told other people about them? What is the story the family always retells at gatherings?

Keep each story to three or four sentences. A eulogy is not the place for long setups — cut to the moment that matters.

Section 4: An Honest Note (1–2 sentences)

Nobody is perfect, and a eulogy that pretends otherwise feels hollow. This does not mean airing grievances. It means acknowledging a recognisable flaw with warmth.

Prompt: What would they laugh about? What quirk drove the people closest to them slightly crazy?

Example: "He was constitutionally incapable of asking for directions, which is how a ninety-minute drive to the beach once became a four-hour tour of the countryside."

Section 5: The Closing (2–4 sentences)

Give the room something to carry with them. A direct address to the deceased, a final image, or a single sentence that distils who they were.

Prompt: If you could say one last thing to them, what would it be? What is the one-line version of their legacy?

How Long This Template Produces

Filled in fully, this template yields roughly 400 to 700 words — which is three to five minutes spoken at a planning rate of 140 words per minute. A common recommendation is three to seven minutes. Anything under three minutes can feel abrupt; anything over seven starts to lose the room, especially when multiple speakers are scheduled.

Adapting the Template for Specific Relationships

The structure works for anyone — a parent, a friend, a colleague, a grandparent. What changes is the angle:

• For a parent: lean into the stories that show how they shaped you
• For a friend: emphasise what you did together, the shared world only the two of you understood
• For a colleague: focus on the working qualities and the specific impact they had on the team or the work
• For a grandparent: the generational perspective is the gift — what did they carry from their era that no one else in the room lived through?

From Template to Delivery

Once you have filled in the sections, read the full draft aloud and time it. Mark the spots where your voice catches — those are the places where you may need a backup reader standing by, or where a pause and a sip of water will get you through.

The How to Write a Eulogy toolkit includes editable versions of this template for every major relationship, a speech-timing calculator, and a delivery-day checklist that covers everything from where to place your water glass to setting up a backup reader with non-verbal cues.