Sample eulogy for a grandfather

For those of you who don't know me, I'm Daniel. Frank was my grandfather. If you knew my grandfather, you knew that he could fix anything with a screwdriver and a piece of wire. Toaster, lawnmower, bicycle, my cousin's first car. He never paid anyone to fix anything in seventy years. That was Grandpa. [pause] A memory. When I was seven, my grandfather took me out to his shed. He pulled down a coffee can full of old screws and bolts and washers and tipped it onto the workbench. He said, "Sort these by size, smallest to largest. Take your time." I sorted them for two hours. When I was done, he looked at my work, picked up two screws I'd put in the wrong piles, moved them, and said, "Good." Then we went inside for lunch. That was the lesson. The work mattered. Doing it right mattered. He didn't have to explain it. He also wasn't a man for big speeches. He showed up at every birthday. He stood quietly at every graduation. When my dad was deployed, my grandfather drove forty minutes each way to mow our lawn every Saturday for nine months without ever once mentioning it. [speaker note: pause and breathe] To Grandma: sixty-two years. We don't have words for what that took. Thank you. To Dad, Uncle Steve, and Aunt Lisa: he was so proud of you. Not the kind of proud he announced. The kind he carried. To my cousins, my aunts and uncles, and everyone here from the workshop and the church: thank you for being part of his quieter, fuller life. [pause] I'll leave you with one image. My grandfather, in his shed, sleeves rolled up, a piece of something broken on the workbench in front of him, the late afternoon light coming in through the small window above the door. That's the man I'll remember. Grandpa, thank you. We'll keep doing the work.