What Will Be Your Story?

I recently had the opportunity to guest-write an article for this month's edition of Coming of Age Magazine! "What Will Be Your Story" is about the story aspect of eulogy-writing. Check out an excerpt below, or see the link for the full spread :)
Thank you Jennifer with Coxe & Graziano Funeral Home for the awesome opportunity!

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When you hear the word eulogy, what’s the first thing that pops into your head?

If you’re like most people, you probably think of a dim-lit funeral parlor, with a person in dark attire standing at a podium, mourners gathered around with tissues held to their faces. And there’s the lonesome casket, itself profusely decorated in overly-aromatic flowers, sitting serenely nearby in the darkest corner of the room.

In your mind’s eye, the person giving the eulogy is trying very hard not to cry, while those in the pews below need not try so hard to hold back the tears. This is the traditional funeral service, and the traditional eulogy: an attempt to illustrate an entire life in the span of a few minutes, while placing much of the emphasis on the fact that this loved one is no longer with us. Most of us have attended a funeral service like this for a loved one at least once in our lives.

Perhaps we’ve also attended a not-so-traditional funeral service, such as a celebration of life. These services attempt to place the focus on who the deceased was in life, during happier times, and not so much on the fact that they have died. Eulogies can be spoken at celebrations of life, too, of course. But they do not necessarily have to meet the expectation of the morose person standing at the podium, doing their best to hold it together. Eulogies don’t even have to occur in a funeral parlor or in a place of worship. They can happen in a home, in a garden, at the beach, on a boat, over Zoom. By today’s standards, they are 100% customizable.

To read the rest of the article and to view the entire magazine, click here!

-Aubrey