PostScript Eulogies

I believe there is a quiet paradox at the heart of every funeral. We gather to honour someone who cannot hear us. We write carefully chosen words for a person who will never read them. We stand at a lectern, voice trembling or steady, and speak into a room full of people, not to the one we have lost, but to those who remain. So I think there's a profound, maybe even unsettling question to be asked which is who, really, is a eulogy for? Traditionally, we are taught that a eulogy is a tribute...

Funerals are, at their heart, deeply personal occasions. They are spaces where grief, memory, love and legacy converge, often within a structured ceremony that asks someone to stand up and speak on behalf of a life lived. Traditionally, that role falls to close family members, but what happens when it doesn’t? In modern funerals, it is increasingly common for friends, colleagues, neighbours, or even professional celebrants to deliver a eulogy. This shift raises an important question: Can you...

There is a particular kind of silence that follows a sudden loss. It is not the quiet that comes after a long illness, where grief arrives slowly, rehearsed in hospital corridors and late-night conversations. Instead, it is abrupt and disorienting; a sentence cut off mid-thought. One moment, life continues as expected; the next, everything has changed. Within that shock often sits a heavy, persistent feeling that you didn’t get to say goodbye. Photo by Junseong Lee on Unsplash Writing a...