Guides & Support
Most people write one obituary in their life, under a deadline, days after losing someone. These are the guides we wish every family had on the first morning.
Writing the Obituary
What to include, how long it should be, what it costs to print, and what to do when you are not sure you knew enough about them to write it.
Answer a few questions and we write the obituary, set it into a program design and email you the words. Free. You pay only for the print-ready file.
The full structure, what belongs in each paragraph, how long it needs to be, and the conventions people get wrong. Start here.
Beautiful does not mean flowery. It means true, specific and read aloud. The five things that do it, two full examples, and the mistakes that make it ordinary.
Fourteen worked examples by relationship and by length - mother, father, husband, wife, son, daughter, grandparent.
Six examples, short to long, with the phrases that sound like her and the ones that sound like a form.
A veteran, a farmer, a father who died suddenly, and a man of few words. Six examples with the shape kept.
Written from the chair a wife sits in the morning after: a long marriage, a short one, a sudden death, and whether to say "my".
For the husband who has never written anything like this and has to by Thursday. Five examples in his voice.
Often written by a grandchild. Five examples, and how to list a family too big to name.
For the grandfather who taught you to fish, drive or fix things and never said much about it.
A child, a teenager, a young adult, an adult child, a death by suicide or overdose. What to say and what nobody can ask of you.
The person who has known you longest: a sister who died young, an older brother, a twin, a sibling who struggled.
When there is no family, or the family asked you: a best friend, a neighbour who lived alone, a colleague, and what to check first.
Ten notices that fit a paid newspaper line count, a program panel or a post, and the six facts none can leave out.
Five that read as love without reading as greeting cards, and the three things that make an obituary sentimental instead.
The facts, the family, the service and one true line, in words anyone can read aloud. Six examples and the structure.
Funny, first-person, a letter, a recipe, a list. When another shape is right, and the two rules that keep it honest.
The useful phrases sorted by where they go, and the worn-out ones to cut, with what to write instead.
Four examples in the family voice, and how to write one a child can read aloud.
Three templates to copy or download in Word, a filled-in sample, and the survivors paragraph on its own.
A fill-in template with the details families of a mother tend to want in it, and a filled-in sample.
A fill-in template with the details families of a father tend to want in it, and a filled-in sample.
Word, Canva, or a template that fills itself in: what each takes and how to choose.
What each takes from you, side by side, and an honest account of when a Canva template is the better choice.
Prices for 25 to 250 copies in four sizes, what moves the price, and the cheaper routes.
Home, a copy shop, online or the funeral home, and the fastest route when the service is soon.
The usual six parts in order, with a short example and how long it should be.
Three documents, three jobs, and the one confusion that costs families the most money.
Why papers charge by the line, what drives the price up, and how to get an exact quote in one phone call.
Misspelled names, survivor lists in the wrong order, a missing stepchild - and a proofing checklist that catches them.
Funeral Programs
What goes in it, the order of service for every kind of funeral, which format holds what, and how to print it without it looking homemade.
The cover, the order of service, the obituary, photographs and the back page - plus how much each format actually holds.
The standard eleven-entry sequence, what each part is for, and the two places families put things in the wrong order.
Thirteen entries, several of which the parish decides rather than the family. Which is which, and what to ask before printing.
Where the rosary fits, why the eulogy belongs at the wake and not the Mass, and what the wake program should contain.
When the whole funeral is at the grave: who leads it, the order, the committal of cremated remains, and what to print.
No liturgy means no structure handed to you. An order that holds together, and how to keep open sharing from falling flat.
For a card, an email, a text and a public post, formal to plainly spoken, with the seven things every invitation must say.
Three eulogies to learn the shape from, how long to speak, and what to do when your voice goes.
The short rite at the grave: what it is, what is said, the order that suits it, and whether you need a program at all.
Where the committal sits in a Lutheran funeral, the order the pastor follows, readings and hymns, cremation, and what to print.
What is rendered, who qualifies, how to arrange it through the funeral director, and where it belongs in the printed order.
Chosen for tone, and checked for the thing most lists ignore - whether you are actually allowed to print it.
Funeral program, order of service, memorial program, bulletin, Mass booklet, homegoing program: what each name means, what is inside, and the four shapes.
Exact wording for the cover, the order of service, survivors, pallbearers and the acknowledgment, ready to copy.
Four templates, traditional, Catholic, celebration of life and graveside, with the blanks marked.
They cost the same to print. What separates them is how much they hold - and one of them caps your order of service.
Paper weight, the one printer setting almost everyone gets wrong, folding, and how many to run.
Planning
What to do when someone dies, why the gathering matters, what makes a good one, and the page you can write for your own family ahead of time.
The ordered list nobody has until three in the morning: who to call, what to collect, what can wait, and what nobody tells you about the month after.
What a funeral does for the living that nothing else does, and why "no fuss, just cremate me" so often leaves the family worse off.
Six things the "exactly right" funerals have in common, none of them expensive, and the five that spoil one.
Yes. What it does for your family, what to include, what to leave for them, and where to keep it so it is found.
Memorial Pages
The page that outlasts the week - collecting memories, choosing photographs, and the accounts that need closing.
How it differs from a Facebook post, a funeral home listing and a paid notice - and the three situations where you clearly want one.
A blank box gets almost nothing. A specific question gets paragraphs. The prompts that actually work, and when to send them.
Which pictures to use, how many each format holds, and the resolution that decides whether the cover prints sharp or soft.
Facebook, Instagram, Google and Apple - what each allows, what you will need, and the one decision that cannot be undone.
Grief and Sympathy
What to send, what to say, how to get through the first holidays, where the support groups are, and what actually helps in the first year.
Waves, not stages. What helps, what helps less than it is supposed to, the ambush of the fourth month, children, and when to get help.
Decide in advance, keep what was theirs on purpose, change something, and give yourself an exit. For the first Thanksgiving and the first Christmas.
Hospice programs, GriefShare, The Compassionate Friends, suicide-loss and children's groups, pet loss. What the first evening is like.
When they are right, when "in lieu of flowers" means no, where to send them and when, the card, and the five things that do more.
How a gift in their name works, how much, how the family finds out, what to write, and what to do when no charity is named.