5 Things I Hope No One Says at My Funeral

Photo by Rhodi Lopez on Unsplash

Every time I attend a funeral, I think how lovely it would have been if the deceased could hear all the glowing accolades spoken over his lifeless body.

Mike & The Mechanics had a song in the 80’s called “The Living Years.” Quite the underappreciated piece of musical art, lead singer, Paul Young, croons mournfully,

“I wasn’t there that morning/ When my Father passed away
I didn’t get to tell him/ All the things I had to say
I think I caught his spirit/ Later that same year
I’m sure I heard his echo/ In my baby’s new born tears
I just wish I could have told him in the living years.

Say it loud, say it clear….it’s too late when we die, to admit we don’t see eye to eye.”

In thinking about what I do want people to say at my funeral, I’ve considered taking the advice of marketing guru, Donald Miller.

He wrote out his own obituary, revises it once a month and reads it every day.

In this way, he says, his mortality is perpetually in front of him, reminding him how he wants to live today, in order to be remembered when he’s gone.

Brilliant.

But for all the wonderful things spoken (true or not) at funerals, there are some things I desperately hope are…