Losing someone close to you is never easy. In the middle of grief, families are often expected to make decisions, arrange services, inform relatives, and find the right words to describe a life that may have spanned decades. This is why writing an obituary can feel like such an important yet difficult responsibility.
Writing an obituary is more than an announcement of someone’s passing. Beyond simple facts and dates, it honours personal achievements, cherished relationships, and the values that defined someone’s story, preserving their legacy in print, memory, or a family coffee table book.
Some obituaries are brief and factual, others read almost like miniature biographies. Neither approach is wrong. What matters most while writing an obituary is that it feels truthful to the person being remembered.
This step-by-step guide by Life Katha by Maneesh Media explains what an obituary is, what information it should contain, how to structure it, and how to make it meaningful without making the writing unnecessarily complicated.
What is an Obituary?
An obituary is a written announcement of a person’s death that usually includes basic biographical information, details about surviving family members, funeral or memorial arrangements, and sometimes instructions for memorial donations.
Traditionally, obituaries appeared in newspapers. Today, they may also be published on funeral home websites, family websites, community pages, social media, online memorial platforms, or within a printed remembrance book.
But writing an obituary serves a larger purpose than simply informing people that someone has passed away. For many readers, it may be the final written account they ever see about that person’s life. Family members may save it for decades. Children and grandchildren may return to it later to remember important names, places, achievements, and stories.
That makes writing an obituary both practical and deeply personal.
A good obituary answers two questions:
Who was this person?
And what made their life meaningful?
Why Writing an Obituary Matters
When someone lives for 70, 80, or even 90 years, summarising that life in a few paragraphs can seem impossible, you do not need to mention everything. The purpose is to select details that help readers understand the person’s journey and remember them as an individual.
For example, instead of simply saying:
“Rajesh was a businessman.”
You might write:
“Rajesh built his family business over four decades, but he was proud of the opportunities it created for younger members of his community.”
The second version reveals personality and values. This is similar to the approach used in biography writing services, where important facts become meaningful only when they are connected with experiences, relationships, decisions, and emotions.
Step 1: Gather the Important Information
Before you begin writing an obituary, collect the facts. Trying to remember dates and family relationships while simultaneously creating beautiful sentences can make the process harder than it needs to be.
Start by noting:
- Full name
- Age
- Date and place of death
- Birth date and birthplace
- Parents’ names
- Spouse or partner
- Children and grandchildren
- Education
- Profession
- Major achievements
- Community involvement
- Hobbies and interests
- Religious or cultural affiliations, if relevant
- Funeral or memorial details
You may not use every detail, but creating this list gives you the foundation for writing an obituary clearly and accurately.
When families create longer remembrance projects such as a Life story book, collecting these facts is also an important first step.
Step 2: Begin With the Announcement
The opening paragraph usually communicates the death directly and respectfully.
A simple opening might say:
“Anita Mehta, a beloved teacher, mother and grandmother, passed away peacefully on 14 July 2026 at the age of 78.”
There is no need to make the announcement complicated.
Depending on the family’s preference, the cause of death may be included, mentioned generally, or omitted completely.
A good obituary template usually begins with:
Name + age + date of death + a short identifying description.
Step 3: Tell the Story of Their Life
After the announcement, move into the person’s life story. This section does not need to become a complete autobiography. Instead, focus on a few meaningful stages.
While writing an obituary you might include childhood, education, career, marriage, migration, accomplishments, community work, passions, or important turning points.
Chronological order is often easiest to follow.
For instance:
After growing up in Jaipur, she studied literature at Rajasthan University before beginning a teaching career that would last more than 35 years.
The objective while writing an obituary is not simply to list facts, it is to give the readers a sense of movement. Professionals offering professional biography writing services often use the same principle: facts tell readers what happened, while carefully chosen details explain why those moments mattered.
Step 4: Include Personality, Interests and Values
Dates and achievements tell only part of a person’s story.
What did they love?
What made people laugh?
What did friends remember about them?
Perhaps your loved one was famous for Sunday lunches, never missed a cricket match, loved old Hindi songs, collected books, travelled whenever possible, or always helped relatives without expecting anything in return. These small details often become the most memorable part of a sample obituary.
Instead of writing:
“She enjoyed cooking.”
While writing an obituary you could say:
“Her kitchen was rarely quiet, especially on Sundays, when family members knew there would always be enough food for one more guest.”
Suddenly, the reader can picture her.
This storytelling approach is also what separates ordinary writing from the best biography writing services, the ability to preserve the personality behind the facts.
Step 5: Mention Achievements Without Making It a Resume
Achievements deserve recognition, but an obituary should not feel like a professional CV. Choose accomplishments that genuinely mattered to the deceased or their family.
These might include:
- Building a successful career
- Establishing a company
- Serving the community
- Receiving professional honours
- Supporting charitable causes
- Raising a family
- Teaching or mentoring others
- Military or public service
- Creative achievements
If the person had an extraordinary journey, families sometimes preserve the story beyond the obituary through Coffee table books, biographies, documentaries, or family history projects.
Step 6: Provide Funeral or Memorial Service Details
One practical purpose of writing an obituary is informing people how they can pay their respects.
Include the relevant:
Date
Time
Venue
Address
Funeral details
Visitation details
Burial information
Memorial service information
Be especially careful when publishing service information online because public notices may reach people outside the deceased person’s immediate community. Only include details the family is comfortable making public.
Step 7: End With Something Personal
The closing paragraph is your opportunity to move from information to remembrance.
You could end with:
“He will be remembered for his generosity, humour and unwavering devotion to his family.”
Or:
“Her greatest joy was bringing her family together, and that tradition will continue through the generations she leaves behind.”
The ending does not need to be dramatic, often simple words are the most powerful. For people working with a Memoir writer or life story writer, this same principle applies: emotional truth is usually more meaningful than exaggerated language.
Preserving a Life Beyond the Obituary
An obituary is necessarily short. Sometimes, however, a family realises while gathering memories that there is far more to preserve. Photographs, letters, family history, migration stories, professional achievements and personal memories can become part of a permanent biography or Life story book.
Families may also explore Coffee table book design when photographs are central to the story, followed by high-quality Coffee table book printing to create copies that can be preserved and shared across generations.
The objective of writing an obituary is not simply to document someone’s achievements, it is to preserve their voice, values and experiences.
That is the philosophy behind Life Katha by Maneesh Media, turning personal histories into meaningful stories that families can continue to revisit long after individual memories begin to fade.
FAQ’s
1. How long should an obituary be?
There is no fixed length, a newspaper obituary may be between 150 and 500 words because publication charges can depend on length, while an online obituary can be considerably longer.
2. What should you avoid when writing an obituary?
When writing an obituary, avoid publishing sensitive personal information, unnecessary private details, unverified family names or dates, and language that does not accurately represent the deceased. When using an obituary template, customise it rather than copying every section mechanically.
3. Can someone professionally write an obituary or life story for my family?
Yes. Families who find it difficult to organise memories or express them in writing can work with professional writers. Services may range from obituary assistance and Ghostwriting services to full biographies, memoirs and legacy books. A professional life story writer can interview family members, organise important memories and transform them into a coherent narrative that respectfully reflects the person’s life.
