Free eulogy template

Below is a free, three-part eulogy template you can copy into a document tonight and fill in by morning. It is the same scaffold we have used to help thousands of families. No signup, no card, no email. Just the template.

The three-part template

The structure is opening, middle, close. Each section is two to four short paragraphs.

Opening (one to two paragraphs)
Thank you all for being here. For those of you who do not know me, my name is [your name], and [name of the deceased] was my [relationship].

[One sentence about who they were to you, in plain language. Not a resume. One image.]

Middle (two to four paragraphs, the body of the eulogy)
[Tell two or three small stories. Each one is about who they were, not what they accomplished. Specific details. The way they answered the phone. The way they tied their shoes. The thing they always said. The food they cooked. The joke that always made everyone groan.]

[Optional: one short story about a hard moment, told with care. The hard moments are often what made the person who they were.]

Close (one to two paragraphs)
[What they gave you that you carry forward. One sentence is enough. Skip the cliches.]

We will miss [first name]. [One small image as the last sentence, so the room has something to hold onto.] Thank you.

A two-minute version

If you have only two minutes, drop the middle to one paragraph and cut the close to one sentence. The opening stays the same.

Thank you for being here. Helen was my grandmother for thirty-eight years. She made bread every Sunday and read every Mary Oliver poem ever published. She loved cardinals and answered the phone with "is this important." She taught me how to listen. I will miss her every day for the rest of my life. Thank you.

A filled-in example

Thank you all for being here. For those of you who do not know me, my name is Sarah, and Marcus Hayes was my father.

My father was the kind of man who fixed things. The dishwasher, the gutters, the carburetor in my first car. He fixed things because he believed that nothing was beyond repair if you sat down with it long enough. I think that is the thing I will carry from him.

He coached my brother's little league team for nine years. He never raised his voice. He stayed after practice to help one kid each week with their swing. He kept a list of who he had helped, in the notebook he kept in the glove compartment.

He was not a man who said I love you out loud. He said it in other ways. He left the porch light on. He showed up at every recital. He sent a hundred dollars in a card on the first day of every school year, signed "love, dad," with no extra flourish.

We will miss my father. I will miss the porch light on. Thank you.

Questions that fill the middle

• What was one small thing only our family knew about them?
• What did they always say?
• What were they doing when they seemed happiest?
• What was the last time we really laughed together?
• What did they teach us, without trying to?

Related and adjacent

For deeper mechanics, see how to write a eulogy. For openings, see eulogy opening lines. For the short format, see short eulogy for a funeral. For delivery, see how to read a eulogy without crying. The full questionnaire lives on our reading aloud companion.

For families planning in a specific city, our New York and places library cover local customs.

Common questions

Is this template really free?

Yes. The template on this page is free to copy and use. There is no signup, no email, no card. If you want help filling it in, Stillwith is also free to begin and asks for payment only when you decide to share the memorial page.

How long should the finished eulogy be?

Five to seven minutes spoken, which is about 700 to 1,000 words written. The three-part template below produces that length when each section is two to four short paragraphs.

Can I deviate from the template?

Of course. The template is a scaffold, not a script. The best eulogies use it as a starting structure and then break it where the family needs them to.