We’ll never know when our loved one ran out of years. A time will come where you need to have all the support when you make funeral announcements to your loved ones, friends, family members, and colleagues. You too have to grieve and decide the burial plots to, and it wouldn’t be easy because of the overflowing emotions of grieve.
One of the main matters to remember is composing the obituary of your loved one. Make a well-composed obituary because that is a document of your loved one, and it will live eternally. When you write an obituary, think of the happiest moment of the person’s life and imagine what they feel at that moment. Include the numerous memorable decisions and sacrifices the person made. Pouring in your emotion can help, and this isn’t an easy task especially if you dearly love that person, and you’re emotional.
Writing an obituary can be on a third person’s point of view. If you know their hopes and dreams, you can include them. Their favorites, accomplishments, love story, and everything about the person’s life is relevant.
There are elements to be followed when writing an obituary, and following these steps can help you.
- Announcement of Death
You should start the obituary with the name, age, the residence of the deceased, and the time and place of death. You can straightforwardly give the information in any way you want. You can use different expressions. They only differ if the person died unexpectedly or through illness. These are the usual expressions used by people these days:
- Passed away
- Departed
- Died
- Entered eternal rest
- Went to be with the Lord
And as much as possible, choose the expression you’re comfortable with to help you move on with their death. You can also decide to yourself and the family if you don’t want to include the cause of death in the obituary.
- Biography Sketch
Biography sketch is where you’ll be sharing the qualities, contributions, most important events and people of that person’s life in chronological order.
We may have similarities with other people, but as an individual, we are unique, and so is our life. In writing the obituary of the person, you can decide to not put in information relating to being a step-parent, a divorcee, or an ex-convict. Write about what you know and see the person.
Listing the achievement of the person is also a good thing, but if they have a lot of accomplishment, choose relevant ones. As much as possible, put in a lot of information with a little wording to maximize the idea.
If you want to make it simple, you can make a point system where you point a certain event and once you’re done, dictate what happened there. Here are examples if you’re still confused:
- Date of birth, marriage, and death
- Their hometown
- Schools attended and earned degrees
- Employment Journey
- Military Ranks and their years of service
- Organizations joined
- Family
In this step, you are to list the people who preceded your loved one. If you have a small family, you can list those who passed as well. A lot of people find difficulty on who to list in the obituary, but I think it should be the people who are dearly close to the person. They can be the niece and nephews, their fiancé or boyfriend, their parents, and other siblings. People who died of old age and has small family members would want to include their caregivers since they were the ones who joined their journey to eternity.
- Service Time
The service time is the chronological order or service at the funeral. Some funeral homes make the funeral director do this part, but some want to be hands-on with the obituary.
Here are details to include that is necessary for this step:
- Time, place, and date of the service
- Name of the officiant
- The time, date, and place of visitation
- The date, time, and place for the burial
- Contact information about the funeral homes (Optional)
- Special Message
You give a special message to people who helped you in this step. You would have to thank the people who donated and gave flowers to the burial. You also want to thank the Hospital the deceased got confine in if they provided great service.
Some charities that your loved one attended too could be included, and if you like, you can donate to these charities. Including organizations and groups whose advocacy relates to the death of your loved one, like cancer or mental health, can raise awareness.
- Photos
Photos of your loved ones add cost to the obituary, but it would make it easier for the readers to recognize the deceased. Obituaries helps in acknowledging the lost person. It makes you realize and thank them that they have been part of your life and how they brought you happiness.
Photos also bring life and show who they were before they died. If you have a lot of choices, you can ask help from the funeral home on what photos to pick for the formatting. You should also stick in mind that you can also dedicate a video presentation of your loved one, and there you can include tons of pictures and videos of them.