Eulogy Assignment Examples

eulogy assignment examples

Good afternoon. My name is Joseph and I’m here today to share with you on behalf of David’s husband, partner and soulmate, Michael Damian Stevenson.

So in the voice of Michael, let me begin.

Pause.

It’s always best to start a love story at the beginning and ours is no different. I first met David in 1993 in Sacramento, CA. My mom had put me on a bus from Oklahoma to live with my sister in California. Circumstances were such that David also had been relocated to California from Missouri.

Yep you heard that right. Two young midwestern boys somehow both found themselves in the middle of sunny California.

It was on a Saturday night in 1993, at the fine establishment known as Denny’s, that these two Midwestern boys would cross paths and end up spending the next 30 years together.

It didn’t take long that first night, for us to recognize all that we had in common. We spent hours that first evening talking. We had both grown up in a religious atmosphere of fundamentalism. We were both in the funeral industry.

Our personalities could be different and that was also apparent from the start. Let’s just say that David did not sugar coat things. (pause)

“I think I’d like to date you”, he very directly said to me.

Mouth wide open, I somehow found the words to reply, “I would be honored.”

And the rest is history, as they say. But wow; what a history I’ve had the privilege of sharing with this man.

From traveling to places like St Croix and Las Vegas to watching our favorite movie of all time, The Birdcage. I think we watched that movie together at least 30 times. It may or may not have been an ongoing joke that he was Nathan Lane and I was Robin Williams. For those of you who haven’t seen it you should really go home and watch it…

I shared so many firsts with David; from taking me to see the ocean for the first time in Monterey, to taking me to Disneyland and to the Grand Canyon.

He always wanted to see me happy. (pause)

He has been such a gift and such a light to me personally and to this world.

In fact, many of you today may be wearing a scarf or some other piece of David’s handiwork. David loved to create and he had such a generous spirit. Crocheting scarves and afghans was one of his favorite activities, but it was really so much more than that. Often when he started, he’d have no idea who his creation would be for. He would always say a prayer over his work and somewhere in the creative process, it would come to him, exactly who needed this special gift.

As you wear your scarf today, know that it was truly a blessing given to you from David.

It shouldn’t be a surprise he turned his crocheting hobby into a ministry. David was deeply spiritual and spent a great deal of time in ministry throughout his life. He was a loving and caring minister for 17 years. It’s been said that he left his churches much larger than he found them. He was uplifting. He believed that people should never come away from church feeling beat up. He believed that people should come away from church feeling uplifted.

David is in fact what brought me here to this community. Although it could be said that I came kicking and screaming my first time….

But I have to say, it only took me a week to recognize this place as home. The love and support I’ve received and continue to receive from this community is priceless. I cherish you all.

What a gift David has left me in his absence.

As a funeral professional I get to hear lots of eulogies. From time to time I’ve found myself wondering, could everyone really be as saintly as they are so often remembered?

We’re all human beings and with that comes the capacity for shortcomings and at times hurt and pain.

And so too it was with David.

But when we love another person and we are able to listen closely through the static of what is the human condition- we can hear the music of who they truly are.

And what beautiful music David Stevenson made.

Even in struggle, if you saw it through to the other side, you were the winner. You couldn’t find a better friend or a better love.

David was intuitive and kind. Generous and thoughtful. He would give you the shirt off his back. He had a way of talking to people. He never met a stranger. He was sweet; hence my nickname for him which was, “Sweetness”. He was funny; very funny. He could have you in stitches at times. He once told me he really thought he could have been a comedian. And another time he told me he could have been a Broadway dancer. Maybe a beautician? He loved hair and makeup.

The truth is David was good at so many things. I loved his spirit and that he dared to dream.

Even in his final days, when he could have chosen anger or fear, David chose gratitude. The best example of this can be seen in his relationship with his grandson, Avery.

Upon sharing his diagnosis with his daughter Shellie, Avery, who had been wobbly and only learning to walk, looked at his Papa across the room and walked for the first time, directly to him.

“I’m really very lucky,” he told me afterward. “I was here for Avery’s birth. I got to see him walk for the very first time.”

Gratitude.

David left this world in much of the same way we lived our life together. I joked with him that I had done everything possible to be sure he made it to heaven. I covered all my bases. We had an anointing and we prayed the Our Father. A rabbi was in the building. A prayer chaplain visited.

David left this world for the next, living and dying within a value he held deeply; interfaith.

(Pause)

“I think I’d like to date you.” He very directly said.

“I would be honored,” I replied.

Thank you David, for sharing the past 30 years with me. Since the very beginning, it has been, and always will be, an honor (my Sweetness). I love you and I miss you.

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