Simon Townsend: Pioneer of Australian Children's Television
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Knowing where to start when writing a death notice can be hard.
If you're reading this, you may have found yourself in the position where you've lost a loved one and been tasked with compiling the death notice to announce their passing to family and friends. Although this may seem overwhelming, hopefully these guidelines and templates can help make this task a little easier.
If you've read obituaries in the newspaper or online, you'll notice that there is a pattern to them. They always have certain elements included and the information flows from specifics of the death and funeral, to details about the deceased and surviving family.
My Tributes have different options to provide families a heartfelt way to communicate a death, by way of a notice, in print and online.
Writing a print death notice
Our advice here is to keep it simple. Often your funeral director will assist you in developing this notice and each company may use a particular template or style.
Here is a generic example of a death notice printed the newspaper:
[LAST NAME, First name]
Late of [Suburb]
Passed away [Date] Age [xx years]
Beloved Husband/Wife/Partner of [Name]
Proud/Loved Father/Mother and Father/Mother-in-Law to [Names]
Adored Grandfather/Grandmother to [Names]
Writing an online death notice
An online notice allows for a little more flexibility. Similarly to the printed notice, the first sentence normally starts with the full name of the deceased, the city in which they lived, the date they died, perhaps where they died and sometimes cause of death.
The next part often tells when and where the deceased was born, and the names of the partner, children, grandchildren, parents and siblings. A list of surviving family members can be found here or at the end of the death notice.
Following on from this, the online death notice notice has space to recount accomplishments and a chronological account of the person's life and education.
Details of the funeral are not placed in these notices as there is a separate section for these notices. You can find details of how to write a funeral notice here.
You can find current examples on My Tributes.
