Obituary Examples for a Friend

When a friend dies, it is often a friend who must find the words — because friendship is a family we choose, and no one knew the person's ordinary days better than the people who shared them. These three examples show how to honour a friend in three registers: short and dignified, personal and warm, or centred on a shared faith. Write down the standing arrangement, the small ritual, the kindness only you saw — that is where a friendship lives.

Short and dignified

Gregory 'Greg' Adams, 68, of Kimberley, died on 18 July 2026 after a short illness. Born on 2 September 1957, Greg spent thirty years behind the parts counter at the local garage, where he knew every regular by the car they drove. He never married and had no children, but he was rarely alone: his standing Friday-night dominoes game ran for four decades without missing a week. Greg is remembered by the friends who became his family, chief among them the Petersen household, who set a place for him at Sunday lunch every week for twenty years. A memorial gathering will be held at the Kimberley Bowls Club on Saturday, 25 July, at 11:00. In lieu of flowers, his friends ask that you buy a stranger a cup of coffee.

Personal and warm

Miriam Naidoo, 71, of Chatsworth, Durban, died at home on 20 July 2026 with her closest friends beside her. Born in Pietermaritzburg on 14 April 1955, Miriam ran a fabric stall at the Sunday market for thirty-one years and could match a thread to any sari from memory. She kept a spare umbrella by her door for whoever needed it and a tin of Marie biscuits that was never once empty. Miriam had no children of her own, but she mothered half the street — driving neighbours to the clinic, plaiting girls' hair before school photographs, and phoning each of her friends at 7 a.m. on their birthdays to sing, badly and gladly. We who loved her will miss that phone call most. She is survived by her brother, Sagren, and by more friends than this page can hold.

Faith-centred

Susanna 'Sannie' Fourie, 79, of Bloemfontein, went home to her Lord on 22 July 2026, as she had long prayed she would — in her own bed, with the radio hymns playing. Born on 6 January 1947, Sannie sat in the third pew from the front at the NG Kerk for over fifty years and kept the church kitchen running with a discipline the dominee gently called 'holy.' She was a friend to the whole congregation, but especially to the widows, whom she visited each Wednesday with a flask of tea and her worn Bible, its margins full of the dates and names she carried in prayer. Those of us she prayed for felt held. Sannie is survived by her sister, Hester, and by a church family who will keep her third pew empty on Sunday.

Writing tips for a friend's obituary

Name the shape of the friendship, not just the word 'friend.' 'Our Thursday coffee at the Wimpy, twenty years running' proves a bond that 'dear friend' only claims.
If your friend had little or no family, say plainly who their chosen family was. It honours the truth of their life and tells other mourners who is holding the loss.
Lead with what you witnessed, not a CV you're unsure of. You may not have every date, but you have the standing arrangement, the borrowed umbrella, the lift home — write those.
Keep the voice you two shared. A friend's obituary is the right place for a fond nickname or a gentle joke, as long as a stranger would smile at it rather than wince.

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Common questions

I'm not family — is it my place to write my friend's obituary?+

Yes. When family are absent, far away or few, the friend who knew someone's daily life is often the right person to write it. If relatives are involved, offer to draft the piece and let them add or amend — grieving families are usually grateful for the help.

How do I write about a friend with no spouse or children without it sounding lonely?+

Don't frame an unmarried or child-free life as a gap. Frame it by what filled it — the friends, the standing games, the neighbours they drove to the clinic. 'He was rarely alone' tells the truth far better than listing the relatives he did not have.

Can I include a nickname or an inside joke?+

A well-chosen nickname or shared phrase can be the warmest line on the page. Keep it kind and brief, and make sure a stranger would understand enough to smile — save the private jokes that need explaining for the eulogy.