Obituary Examples for a Grandmother
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What is different about writing for a grandmother
The job usually lands on a grandchild, because you are the one who is good with the computer or the one who is not falling apart this week. It is worth saying plainly that the obituary is not written from your seat. It is written from the family’s, and the family includes her children, who knew a woman you never met: a young wife, a night-shift worker, a daughter who buried her own parents. Before you draft a line, call her oldest surviving child or her sister and get the first forty years. Where she was born, her maiden name, the year she married, the work she did before anyone called her Grandma.
Her survivor list will be the longest one your family writes for a generation, and there is a convention that keeps it readable. Children first, with their spouses in parentheses. Then grandchildren by name if there are fewer than about a dozen. Then a straight count of great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren. Nobody expects forty-one names, and a number is not coldness. The exception worth making is a grandchild she raised: name that child among her children, or say plainly that she raised them. Families read that line very closely.
For a great many grandmothers, the church or parish is the institution that carries her name, and the obituary is partly an announcement to it. If that is true of her, be exact rather than warm. The year she joined, one role she held, how long she held it. “She joined Bethel in 1954 and served on the usher board for forty-one years” says more than any adjective can. If you are unsure of the right word for a role, an office or a service, call the church and ask. They would rather you asked.
Then there are the last years. A hospital bed in the front room, a nursing home, the slow loss of a person who was still sitting right there. That version is freshest in everyone’s mind and it is the least of what she was. You are allowed one clause, “after several years of failing health,” or nothing at all. You are allowed to do less than you think. An obituary is a notice, not a medical record.
Complete examples
Every name, town and employer below is invented. Copy whichever is closest to your situation and change the details line by line. Most people have a first draft inside twenty minutes that way.
Short obituary for a great-grandmother, four generations
87 words · paid newspaper notice
Lorraine Estelle Prudhomme, 93, of Ambrose, Louisiana, died at home on February 9, 2026.
She was born in Pointe Aubry on January 4, 1933, married Cyril Prudhomme in 1952, and cooked Sunday dinner for four generations of her family.
She is survived by her daughters, Yvette Boudreaux and Camille Prudhomme; eleven grandchildren; twenty-six great-grandchildren; and three great-great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband and her son, René.
A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, February 14, at St. Aubin Catholic Church.
Standard obituary for the grandmother whose house was the meeting place
227 words · funeral home website
Josephine “Josie” Marchetti, 89, of Greenmarsh, Rhode Island, died on Tuesday, June 16, 2026, at Bayview Regional Hospital, with her daughters beside her.
Josie was born on March 3, 1937 in Greenmarsh, the fourth of seven children of Antonio and Filomena Ricci. She left school at sixteen to work at the Bellwether costume jewelry plant on Dyer Street, where she stayed until it closed, and then spent nineteen years in the kitchen at Greenmarsh Elementary, feeding other people’s children.
She married Louis Marchetti at St. Rosalia Church in 1957. They had three daughters and one long argument about the thermostat.
Sunday dinner was at one o’clock at Josie’s house for fifty-one years. She made the sauce on Saturday. She kept a rosary in her apron pocket, played Bingo on Wednesdays in the parish hall, and could not be talked into flying anywhere.
She is survived by her daughters, Anna Marchetti of Greenmarsh, Theresa Boisvert (Paul) of Cobb Hill, and Lucia Ferrara (Nick) of Greenmarsh; nine grandchildren; and fourteen great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband, Louis, in 2011, and by her brothers, Sal, Dominic and Aldo.
A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, June 27, at St. Rosalia Church, with burial at St. Rosalia Cemetery. Visitation will be held Friday from 4 to 7 p.m. at Barrett and Sons Funeral Home.
Full obituary for a long life, five generations
372 words · funeral home page or memorial website
Consuelo “Connie” Ybarra, 92, of Marisol, Texas, died at home on the evening of September 30, 2026, after several years of failing health. Four generations of her family were in the house.
Connie was born on August 21, 1934 in Cañada Verde, Texas, the eldest daughter of Refugio and Petra Salinas. She was eleven when she started keeping the books for her father’s produce stand, and she was still checking her own bank statement by hand at ninety.
The family moved to Marisol in 1949. She married Ernesto Ybarra on November 5, 1955 at Our Lady of the Palms, in a dress her mother sewed in three weeks. They were married fifty-eight years.
Connie worked eleven years at the Gulfway seafood cannery and then twenty-six years for the Los Vientos school district, first in the cafeteria and then in the front office, where she learned the name of every child who came through the door and used it.
She belonged to Our Lady of the Palms for seventy-seven years. She was a member of the Guadalupanas, cleaned the sanctuary on Thursdays, and prayed the rosary for people who had not asked her to.
At Christmas she made tamales with her sisters, then her daughters, then her granddaughters, in the same kitchen, for more than sixty years. She played dominoes for money. She kept every school photograph any child in the family ever brought her, taped inside the cabinet doors, and by the end there was no bare wood left.
She is survived by her children, Ernesto Ybarra Jr. (Diana) of Marisol, Yolanda Cavazos (Ruben) of Fair Oaks Crossing, and Sylvia Ybarra of Marisol; fourteen grandchildren; thirty-one great-grandchildren; six great-great-grandchildren; and her sister, Olga Treviño of Cañada Verde. She was preceded in death by her husband, Ernesto, in 2013; her daughter, Rosa Maria Ybarra; her parents; and four brothers and sisters.
A rosary will be prayed at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 8, at Salazar Memorial Chapel. A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, October 9, at Our Lady of the Palms Catholic Church, with burial to follow at Palm Grove Memorial Park.
In place of flowers, the family asks that you make tamales with someone younger than you.
Standard obituary for a grandmother who raised her grandchildren
200 words · funeral home website or program
Deloris Jean Hackett, 78, of Belden, West Virginia, died at home on Monday, May 4, 2026.
Deloris was born on July 12, 1947 in Kanaugh County, West Virginia, to Elbert and Ruby Sparks. She married Carl Hackett in 1966 and worked twenty-two years in the laundry at Ohio Valley General, on the shift nobody wanted, because it was the one that let her be home in the afternoon.
In 2003, at fifty-five, she took in her three grandchildren and raised them. She went to every parent-teacher conference, every band concert and every graduation, and she never once described it as a sacrifice.
She grew tomatoes on a concrete porch. She kept a coffee can of quarters for the ice cream truck for twenty years after the last child outgrew it.
She is survived by her daughter, Tammy Hackett of Belden; her grandchildren, whom she raised as her own, Dustin, Kayla and Brianna Hackett; two great-grandchildren; and her brother, Roger Sparks. She was preceded in death by her husband, Carl; her son, Michael; and her parents.
A service will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 9, at Cordell Funeral Home, with burial at Sparks Family Cemetery in Kanaugh County.
Phrases you can borrow
These are the lines families reach for when the plain facts are down and the obituary still feels flat.
“She is survived by eleven grandchildren, twenty-six great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren.”
Counting rather than naming is standard once the list passes about a dozen. It reads as scale, not distance.
“Her house was the one everybody ended up at.”
Good when there was one house and everyone knows which one. Name the street if the family still owns it.
“She joined the church in 1954 and never left it.”
Give the actual year. A number does work that “devoted member” cannot.
“She made the sauce on Saturday for Sunday dinner, and nobody wrote the recipe down.”
Only if it is true. One dish, named, is the line the grandchildren will repeat to each other.
“She was the last of her generation in the family.”
For a woman who outlived her husband, her brothers and sisters, and most of her friends. It quietly explains a small turnout.
“In her last years she did not always know the day, but she always knew the song.”
A way to name dementia honestly without making it the story. Only if it happened.
“She was preceded in death by her husband, Cyril, and by her son, René.”
If she outlived a child, say so. It gets left out in the rush more often than you would think, and it hurts to see it missing.
“She loved her family and will be deeply missed.”
Worth cutting. It is true of nearly everyone and tells a reader nothing. One habit of hers in that space is worth ten of these.
“God gained another angel.”
Common, and it makes a fair number of readers wince. If your family’s faith wants saying, use your own church’s words for it.
“She asked for no fuss, and we are mostly honoring that.”
Useful when there is no service, or a very small one. It answers the question before anyone has to ask it.
What to watch for
- Get the first forty years from her oldest child · Maiden name, hometown, the year she married, the work she did before the grandchildren. Almost nobody has these right from memory.
- Spell four generations of names correctly · Married surnames, step-grandchildren, the granddaughter who goes by her middle name. Type the list, send it to two relatives, and ask each of them to look for their own name.
- Count past a dozen instead of listing · Name the children and grandchildren, then give a number for great-grandchildren and beyond. If she raised a particular grandchild, name that one among the children.
- Call the church office before you name a role · They can confirm the year she joined and the correct name of the board, guild, circle or auxiliary she served on. Getting it slightly wrong is exactly what people notice.
- Decide about the last years once, as a family · Agree on one clause, or none, before the text goes to the funeral home. A newspaper cannot be edited after it prints.
- Keep the maiden name and the full birth date apart · Together they answer the standard bank security questions. Publishing the birth year alone is common and completely acceptable.
- Leave her home address out · Published obituaries are read by people who know the family will be at the service. The funeral home or church address is enough.
- Read it out loud before you send it · These get read aloud more than anyone expects, at the visitation and over the phone to relatives who cannot travel. Anything that trips you will trip them.
The general rules on length, the order of survivors and what to leave out are on the main obituary examples page, and the step-by-step method is in how to write an obituary.
Other relationships
Common questions
I am her granddaughter and I am writing it. Should it sound like me?
How do I list great-grandchildren when there are dozens?
She outlived one of her children. How do I write that?
Should the obituary mention her dementia?
Do we call her Grandma, Nana, or her legal name?
The newspaper charges by the line. What do we cut first?
Keep reading
- How to Write an ObituaryA calm, six-step way to write an obituary when you don’t know where to start, with the exact information to gather and full examples.
- Obituary TemplatesSix fill-in-the-blank obituary templates: traditional, short, newspaper, celebration of life, military and faith. Free to use and copy.
- Short Obituary ExamplesShort obituary examples between 50 and 150 words, written to fit newspaper line limits without losing the person.
- Obituary FormatThe standard obituary format explained section by section, with the order newspapers and funeral homes expect and how long each part should be.