4 Tips to Make Funeral Thank You Notes Easier

Dear Ms. Cards Etiquette,

We had a recent loss in the family and need to start sending out the thank you cards. we have an excel spreadsheet with everyone we need to send to and their mailing addresses. Would it be OK to just use computer printed mailing address labels and also return address labels or is it much preferred to handwrite the addresses. We are sending preprinted thank you messages and adding our own personal notes.

-Patricia

While you may have a lot of thank you cards to send out, it is much more formal and proper to handwrite the addresses on the cards. Computer generated address labels look like a mass mailing, and not like the heartfelt correspondence you want to convey in a personal thank you card.

There are a few ways to make the process go faster.

Understand that with a funeral, you’ve got up to a year to send out the thank you’s. If you don’t have the mental capacity to deal with the details now, take your time. Send a few thank you’s at a time until you finish.
Understand that you don’t have to do it alone. Make it a task for the entire family. You can order take-out and make a family gathering of it. Give everyone a stack of names to write addresses. Even the children can help by putting stamps on the envelopes.
You don’t have to write a book. A few heartfelt sentence or two on a thank you is much more meaningful than a dissertation of fluff.

“Dear So and So,
Thank you for attending my father’s funeral. Your support during this time means a lot to us.
Signed
Patricia Smith”
See it as part of the healing process. Someone in your family died, and like it or not, you have to face it. Getting the family together to write the thank yous is a way to recall happy memories of the deceased as well, or, to simply support each other as a family.

Good luck with this. My condolences to you and your family, Patricia.

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