Sample eulogy for a grandmother

For those of you who don't know me, I'm Emma. Helen was my grandmother. Grandma had a phrase she used whenever any of us did something foolish, which, between her ten grandchildren, was often. She would look at us, sigh once, and say, "Well, you'll know better next time." She never said anything more than that. And she was always right. We always did know better next time. That was Grandma. [pause] She kept a house that smelled like bread on Sundays. There were lemon drops in the green dish on the side table. There was an afghan on the back of every chair. None of the chairs matched. She didn't care. She kept a list, in her handwriting, of every grandchild's birthday and what each of us liked. Mine said, "Emma. Peach jam. Hates raisins." She was the only person in our family who remembered I hate raisins. When my brother Daniel went through a hard year in college, she wrote him a letter every Sunday for ten months. Real letters. With stamps. He still has them. [speaker note: look up here] To my mom and Uncle Tim and Aunt Karen: thank you for sharing her with us all these years. We know what it cost. We saw. To my cousins: keep telling each other the stories. We grew up in her house as much as in our own. That's a thing not many families get. [pause] I'll close with this. I went to see Grandma three weeks ago. She wasn't sure who I was, but she held my hand and said, very softly, "Well, you'll know better next time." I don't know who she was talking to. I'm choosing to believe she was talking to me. Grandma, we love you. Thank you for ten grandchildren's worth of Sundays.