Tips for Giving Memorial Tributes

Among the cremation services offered in Phoenix, AZ are help in taking care of putting memorial services together to honor the memory of a loved one who has died. One of the things that are traditionally included in memorial services are tributes that remember the loved one who died.

If you’re asked to give a memorial tribute during a memorial service, it means that you were close to the deceased and the family knows that you will honor their memory in a powerful way that will highlight what the deceased meant to you personally, what character traits and attributes they had that made an impact on the world around them, and how they changed lives during their time on earth.

However, you may not like public speaking or you may be afraid that you’ll freeze, saying the wrong thing, or getting emotional during your tribute and be unable to continue. These, as hard as it might be to believe, are not reasons to turn down the family’s request for you to give a memorial tribute.

Fear of public speaking can be managed. The tendency to freeze can be managed. And emotions can be managed. So, accept the family’s request and use these tips to help prepare and give a memorial tribute that truly remembers and honors their loved one.

The first tip is to remember that this tribute is about the person who died. Think before you start preparing – you should always type out your tribute and take it with you to the memorial service, even if you think you know it by heart – your tribute. Ask yourself what drew you to the deceased. Ask yourself what you loved about them. Ask yourself what you admired about them. Ask yourself why you became friends and stayed friends, perhaps for an entire lifetime.

Those are the things that you will draw upon to draw a portrait of the deceased for the mourners who gather for the memorial service. They will be from your personal experience and they will be from your heart. Be sure to include fond and humorous memories from your lives together that will comfort and uplift the deceased’s family and the other mourners at the memorial service.

The second tip to giving a memorial tribute is to keep it short. Even though it can seem impossible, and maybe even disrespectful, to try to condense someone’s life into a few minutes, you don’t want go more than 10 or 15 minutes at the most with your memorial tribute.

Practice, practice, practice. One way to manage nerves, freezing, and emotions is to practice giving your memorial tribute before you are actually standing up in front of the deceased family and a roomful of mourners. Read it out loud a few times. Stand in front of a mirror and read it out loud. Once you feel comfortable, ask your family to be the audience and read it out loud to them. The more you practice, the better your memorial tribute will be.

The final tip is to breathe. When you were in school and you had to give a class presentation, the odds are that you did it as quickly as possible without taking a breath to get it over with (just everyone else did too). But you’re honoring a friend with a memorial tribute, so stopping to breathe not only paces your delivery, but it can also calm you down.

For information about cremation services offered in Phoenix, AZ, including grief resources, our caring and knowledgeable staff at Simply Cremations & Funeral Arrangements is here to assist you. You can visit our funeral home at 16952 W Bell Rd., Ste 303, Surprise, AZ 85374, or you can call us today at (623) 975-9393.