How to write a eulogy for a sibling
Speaking about a brother or sister means speaking about the person who knew your childhood from the inside. This guide helps you say what only the two of you saw.
Where to start
4 · steps- 1
Start with a memory from childhood that only the two of you would tell the same way.
- 2
Speak about who they became when nobody related to them was watching.
- 3
Acknowledge the parents who outlived them, if they did. That loss is its own kind.
- 4
End with a sentence from the language only siblings have.
How to write a eulogy for a sibling
My brother and I shared a basement room until I was twelve. The ceiling had a water stain that we agreed, by the age of six, looked like the state of Florida, though neither of us had ever been. We had a language of our own there — words for the sound the radiator made when our father came down the stairs, words for the particular tiredness of a Sunday afternoon, words for the exact way our mother sighed when she was about to say no. That language never left us. We were still using it on the phone a week before he died. What I will miss is being known without explanation. With everyone else I have to start at the beginning. With him I could start at the end. He understood why a sentence was funny before I had finished saying it. I have nobody now to laugh with at the things only the two of us saw.
Your words will fit better.
Share one or two memories — the speech will assemble itself in minutes.