A labelled sample. Margaret Hale and her family are made up; a real obituary is written only from the facts your family gives us. The full version is about 400 words; the short notice is under 150.
Sample obituary: Margaret Hale
The full obituary
Margaret Ann Hale, known to everyone as Peggy, died at home in York on 3 March 2026, with her two daughters beside her. She was 84.
Peggy was born on 2 May 1941 in Leeds, the second of four children of Arthur and Ivy Dixon. She grew up on Compton Road, left school at sixteen, and trained as a teacher at the city college after her mother told her, firmly, that she was too clever to do anything else. She taught at Elm Street Primary for 31 years, most of them in the same classroom by the boiler, and could still name every child she had taught. Many of them, now grandparents themselves, stopped her in the street until the end.
She married Geoffrey Hale in 1964 after meeting him at a dance she had not wanted to go to. They were married for 48 years, until Geoffrey's death in 2012, and raised two daughters in the house on Bishopthorpe Road that Peggy never left. She was known for her garden, which she would not let anyone else weed, for her Sunday roasts, which she would not let anyone else carve, and for her habit of writing down every birthday in the family in a small red book that she kept by the phone.
After she retired in 1999, Peggy volunteered at the hospice shop on Wednesdays, took up watercolours badly and cheerfully, and walked the river path every morning with her terrier, Bramble, and then with Bramble's successor, also called Bramble. She read a novel a week and had opinions about all of them.
She is survived by her daughters, Ruth and Claire; her sons-in-law, Mark and David; her grandchildren, Sophie, Jack, Ella and Tom; her brother, Peter; and the garden. She was preceded in death by her husband, Geoffrey, and by her sister, Jean.
The funeral will be held at St Chad's Church, York, on Friday 13 March at 11 a.m., followed by burial at Fulford Cemetery. Family flowers only. Donations, if wished, to St Leonard's Hospice, York.
The short notice for the paper
HALE, Margaret Ann (Peggy), of York, died peacefully at home on 3 March 2026, aged 84, with her daughters beside her. Beloved wife of the late Geoffrey; much-loved mother of Ruth and Claire; grandmother of Sophie, Jack, Ella and Tom; sister of Peter and the late Jean. A teacher at Elm Street Primary for 31 years. Funeral at St Chad's Church, York, on Friday 13 March at 11 a.m., then Fulford Cemetery. Family flowers only; donations, if wished, to St Leonard's Hospice.