If you have ever been to funeral homes Waite Hill, OH, you’d already know what a eulogy is. It is a speech that celebrates the life of a departed loved one. Giving tribute to the deceased has been a longstanding tradition in the funeral service – and often the central event.

Giving a eulogy is an honor and if you are chosen to pay tribute to the lost loved one, then it needs to be done well. Just follow the below tips to make sure the eulogy is moving, appropriate, and thoughtful.

1. Be Authentic

Try to be as close to the truth as possible. Don’t make it sound like the deceased was the most perfect person ever lived. A good eulogy can admit the person’s faults but will typically emphasize their strengths. Focus on the loved one’s major accomplishments, hobbies, passions, religion, volunteer work, and a brief intro of their spouse and children (if any), hobbies, passions, religion, and volunteer work.

2. Keep It Brief Yet Informative

A long eulogy makes the audience bored. Make sure your eulogy is brief, and poignant, and summarize the individual’s life without going into every detail. It should be approximately 1000 words and take around 6-8 minutes to deliver.

3. Think of a Theme

A professional eulogy revolves around a central theme. It can be anything like a central story, phrase, or quote as a motif. Or maybe you want to highlight a story or phrase that captures several aspects of their life and personality.

4. Think of Their Best Stories but Don’t Go Into Details

The bulk of the eulogy should be centered around narrating the major attributes and important stories of the loved one’s life. You may start with a favorite memory of the story of the deceased you were part of and connect it to one of the person’s defining characteristics.

Alternatively, you can choose to highlight the defining traits of their personality and link them with quotes or memories of the beloved soul. This part can give you at least half of your material.

But be sure to avoid unnecessary details. Keep it to 1-2 short stories. While the eulogy should focus on their personality and how they affected the lives of others but don’t forget to summarize the person’s family, accomplishments, and legacy. However, it doesn’t sound like the entire eulogy is about a list of people, places, and events.

5. Closing the Eulogy

It is good to close with a story, quote, or illustration. Your closing remarks can be between ten seconds to a minute. Add a couple of brief sentences to wrap things up. Consider saying “goodbye” to your loved ones and also say “Thank you” to all the guests for attending the event.

6. Write It Down

Yes, you can be a great speaker and we don’t doubt your memorizing and oration skills. But try to write everything you want to say. If you’re an experienced public speaker, notes or a bare outline can do the purpose. For someone not-so-experienced, write out each word you want to say. You can find more help at funeral homes Waite Hill, OH. Contact us today.

When you plan a memorial service at funeral homes Waite Hill, OH, grief is natural. Complicated grief is a heightened state of mourning that keeps you from healing. The pain can be physical as well as emotional and can seriously hamper a person’s ability to carry out even the daily minor tasks.

Here are some interesting points about complicated grief:

1. Complicated Grief Takes a Toll on Your Mental Health

One of the powerful reverberations of this persistent grief is deep-set emotions may get you thinking about irrational thoughts. It disrupts your day-to-day activities, makes small tasks look insurmountable, and can also surface thoughts about harming yourself.

Get help immediately if this is you.

2. Complicated Grief Begins as Normal Grief

Complicated grief starts just like normal grief where you face a rollercoaster of painful emotions. With time, as work through your grief, if the intensity of emotions doesn’t drop down or you are unable to learn to adapt to the changed reality, it has transitioned to complicated grief. This can be very difficult to deal with emotionally.

3. Complicated Grief Can Display Symptoms of PTSD

People who have gone through a harrowing experience such as a car accident or other violent death are often the victims of PTSD. The same can be said for complicated grief in some specific cases.

If you are already suffering from depression, anxiety disorder, or personality disorders when coping with the loss of a loved one, the chances increase for complicated grief to set in and show symptoms of PTSD. Additionally, the intensity of complicated grief also depends on how you cope with stress, trauma, and loss.

4. You May Get Hallucinatory Experiences

When you are going through complicated grief, it’s normal to feel that you see or hear the lost loved one. This is a common disease also to as “grief hallucinations.” So, if you’re also facing this emotion, you’re not alone. It’s an experience that many have. However, if it is happening to you, seeing a professional grief counselor can help you make sense of what’s going on.

5. Watch Out for Behavioral Changes

It’s very common to experience behavioral changes while coping with complicated grief. You might feel all normal one moment and suddenly, become reckless, taking chances with your body or health. Similarly, many people facing strong emotional grief become more impulsive and don’t stop themselves from indulging in dangerous situations and even, wishing/hoping to die.

Be aware of these behaviors and get professional help asap to avoid risking yourself.

6. Staying Healthy Helps

Lastly, it is important to take care of yourself at all times, especially when your mind and body are under heavy stress. One good way is to develop good habits. Plus, make sure you get enough rest, exercise, and keep in contact with your friends and family.

Also, eat nutritious food, quit smoking or drinking habits, and honor the loved one in whatever way you like. All these things are more important than ever at a time when you’re battling complicated grief. Speak to your funeral director at funeral homes Waite Hill, OH, for more help. Contact us today.

Funeral homes Waite Hill, OH, are affected by changing times. With the strict government social distancing restrictions to curb the spread of coronavirus, people around the world looked for new ways to honor the deceased amid this global pandemic.

Are you excited to learn more about how different cultures and religions are adapting their centuries-old death funeral traditions? Here’s what you should know about the effects of the pandemic on funeral rituals:

1. Trend of Virtual Prayers and Rituals in Catholic Church

For nearly two thousand years, Christians receive their last rites from a priest in person. But the pandemic has forced many priests to go virtual. Thousands of churches and funeral homes around the world were closed for worship and funeral services during the restrictions.

The mourners relied on live video streaming to pay final tribute to the dead from the comfort of their laptop screens. Now that restrictions are gone in many places, some people still prefer logging in to an online platform and watching the whole funeral services while sitting at home.

An online funeral may be impersonal, but there are many conveniences attached. People who don’t have the ability to travel to the funeral can still watch the proceedings and be engaged. This is especially helpful if the deceased had friends and family in diverse geographic locations.

2. Changes in Traditional Islamic Body Washing

In Islamic funerals, it’s mandatory to wash the body of the deceased before burying. Generally, the immediate family members perform this service and wash the body of the deceased within 24 hours of death.

But the pandemic has turned this ritual to medical volunteers who follow strict preventive measures while washing the body.

These changes may seem small, but they are noticeable.

3. Virtual Shivas in Jewish Communities

Many people in Jewish communities no longer host guests for Shiva– a mourning period that lasts one week soon after burying a dead. Here, the bereaved family invites close friends and family to remember and pay tribute to the deceased. It is the single most important event associated with Jewish funerals.

But the pandemic has forced many Israelis to grieve alone at home and resort to online live video streaming platforms to help close ones get together and pay their condolences. Similarly, many Jews have quit reciting the Kaddish, the religious mourning prayer, as it involves the physical presence of a 10-people quorum in two lines.

4. Silent Banks on the Ganges

For thousands of years, Hindus have been cremating bodies in the presence of friends and family and dispersing the remains in the Ganges.

The big public funeral processions were a common sight in India but for almost two years (2020 and 2021), the pandemic emptied the mighty banks of the Ganges river where thousands of people used to pay their regards.

Similarly, minor to significant changes are observed in funeral traditions across all the cultures in different countries. The experts believe that the trend is likely to continue in the coming years as it has given more flexibility to the mourners to honor the deceased.

Find out more information at funeral homes Waite Hill, OH. Contact us today.