Eulogy Examples for a Grandmother

A grandmother is often mourned by a whole row of grandchildren at once, which raises a question most eulogy guides skip: are you speaking only for yourself, or on behalf of all of you? The answer changes the shape of the speech, so this page gives you an example of each. A eulogy for a grandmother usually runs three to five minutes, and it tends to live in the small, specific details, a recipe, a saying, a scent, that made her hers.

Whichever way you go, you do not need polish. You need to sound like her grandchild, which you are, and to say one or two true things about the woman who helped raise a family.

First decide: are you speaking for yourself or for everyone?

If you are the only grandchild speaking, or you want to share your own particular bond with her, speak in the first person and tell your story. If several of you are grieving together and have asked one person to represent the group, speaking on behalf of all the grandchildren can be deeply moving, because it shows the room how many lives she touched. The two examples below match those two paths.

A eulogy from one grandchild

"Everyone always says their grandmother made the best food, and everyone else is wrong, because mine actually did. But that is not what I will miss.

What I will miss is the way she had all the time in the world for me. In a family that was always rushing somewhere, Grandma never rushed. You would sit down at her kitchen table meaning to stay ten minutes, and two hours later you were still there, telling her things you had not told anyone, because she made it so easy. She listened like you were the only person on earth.

I do not know where all that patience came from. I only know I want to give it to the people I love, the way she gave it to me. Thank you for the time, Grandma. That was the real gift, and I felt it every single day."

A eulogy on behalf of all the grandchildren

Speaking for the group works best when you gather a line or a memory from each grandchild in advance and weave them together. It turns the tribute into a chorus.

"I am speaking today for all of us, her grandchildren, and there are a lot of us. When we started sharing memories this week, one thing became very clear: every single one of us believed we were her favorite.

And here is the remarkable part. We were all right. That was her gift. She had a way of making each of us feel chosen, like there was a special place in her heart with our name on it and no one else's. To one of us she was the keeper of the recipes. To another she was the one who slipped you a five-dollar bill and a wink. To another she was the safe place to land when home got hard.

She was all of those grandmothers at once, to all of us at once. That is the woman we are here to thank today. On behalf of every grandchild she made feel like the favorite: we love you, Grandma. Save all of us a seat."

Where to find the details that make it hers

Grandmother eulogies are carried by specifics, and grandchildren often hold different pieces. Before you write, ask around the family. Someone remembers the exact wording of her favorite saying. Someone has the story behind the recipe. Someone knows what she was like as a young woman, long before she was anyone's grandmother. Gather three or four of these and choose the ones that make you smile. A single line she always said, delivered in her voice, will do more than a paragraph of praise.

Keeping her close after the service

Telling her stories at the service keeps your grandmother present. With so many grandchildren, families often want something each person can keep, a small, tangible way to carry her that goes around to everyone.

Some hand down her recipes, some plant her favorite flowers, and some choose solidified remains. Through a patented process Parting Stone pioneered, virtually all of a person's cremated remains are gently transformed into 40 to 80+ smooth, holdable stones. Because there are enough for the whole family, the grandchildren can share them, each holding a piece of her and carrying one wherever they go. More than 14,000 families have chosen this path.

None of that needs deciding now. Today is for her stories and your few honest minutes. When the time feels right, you can see the stones and read families' stories at your own pace.

For the full method behind writing and delivering a tribute, see how to write a funeral speech.