Eulogy Examples for a Sister

When you stand up to speak about your sister, you don't need to account for every year of her life. Two or three real moments — the ones that still make you smile or ache — will tell the room more than a list of dates ever could. The example below is one brother's words for his sister, written to be read aloud in about two minutes.

For my sister Annelie — from her brother

The structure underneath it

1. Opens with a plain, almost wry picture — barely taller than the counter she ran everything from — rather than a line of praise.
2. The first story turns love into something she did: baking four dozen koeksisters and driving them to the hospital nurses, without an adjective in sight.
3. The second story centres on one ordinary object — a school exercise book of recipes — and lets her margin notes speak for her instead of describing her.
4. It quietly names what she was really doing ('making sure we'd manage') without over-explaining the feeling underneath it.
5. It ends inside the loss, with a recipe that came out wrong, refusing to promise the family will be fine.

Delivering it

• Crying is allowed, and it won't ruin anything. If you have to stop, stop. A pause while you gather yourself is not a failure — it is the most natural thing in the room.
• Take water up with you and breathe before the first word. Grief makes people rush; mark a slash on the page anywhere you want to slow right down or simply wait.
• You are not doing this alone. When your eyes fill and the page swims, look up and find one kind face — the whole congregation is willing you through it.
• Print it LARGE — at least 16pt, generous line spacing, single-sided so you never fumble a page mid-sentence. Staple or number the sheets so a shaking hand can't lose its place.