Bereavement Thank You Notes

Writing bereavement thank you notes after the funeral of a loved one can be especially hard to tackle. Mentally and emotionally it may feel almost impossible.

Consider enlisting the help of a family member or close friend. Just having them there will help give you the push to get started. I don’t see any reason that they can’t help you by organizing the mailing lists and addressing envelopes.

When the parent of grown children has died, I know of some who have divided the list of thank yous among themselves to ease everyone’s burden. They share carrying the load so that no one person has to do it all. It makes sense for each person to send sympathy thank you cards to the people they know personally.

It is generally accepted that you will send thank you notes to those who: sent flowers/funeral arrangements, made donations in honor of the deceased, or brought food in to the family.

The content of a thank you note does not have to be long and wordy. It can consist of three to four sentences.

• A greeting
• An acknowledgement
• A personal tidbit
• A word of thanks/appreciation
• A closing.

The main thing is to let them know you are thankful, it does not need to be fancy or elaborate.

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