Finding the right words for the bereaved in the event of death is often a real challenge. Often one fails already at the first formulations, which are to express reverently the sympathy and the condolence. For this reason, often only prefabricated cards are signed and sent, which, however, always contain the same words of comfort, Bible verses and quotes. Individually inscribed sympathy cards therefore stand out with dignity. There is a wide selection of quotes and wisdom on the subject of death and mourning. Therefore something can be found surely, which fits to the own feeling and the life of the deceased one.
In the following, we have compiled formulations and sample texts as well as tips for individually designed bereavement cards for you to express your sympathy and condolences as well as to give comfort to the relatives.
We have summarized all our sample texts for business condolence letters for you to download in the whitepaper – Templates for business condolence letters and expressions of sympathy. You can find suitable funeral cards for business customers in our online shop.
Business formulations for condolence letters – Sample texts for condolence letters
Dear Mrs./Mr. (Name),
The news of the death of your wife/husband has deeply saddened my family, my co-workers and me. Your husband/wife has been torn from full life. I know that he/she still wanted to move a lot.
Especially the suddenness of the misfortune makes us humans very difficult;
we need a while to understand that life goes on.
I want you, (name), to know that you have friends. We think in sorrow of your
Mrs./Mr. (Name) and would like to express our condolences in this way.
Your (name)
Dear Mrs./Mr. (Name),
It is difficult for me to put into words my feelings about the death of your husband. But I do not want to remain speechless in pain, but I want to tell you that I am also very touched by this involuntary farewell of a valued person.
The traces left behind will remain in me and remind me full of melancholy, but also gratefully of this person, with whom a part of the past connects me. This retrospective can remind us that we cannot run away from our grief, but must continue to move forward, no matter how difficult it may be for us.
Death and life are the two sides of our existence that meet and challenge us every day in many different ways. The one without the other would be unthinkable and ultimately meaningless. To sense or understand this in the course of time is a sorrowful, yet comforting path that can lead us on and transform us. We cannot abolish the shadows, but we can turn to the light.
In these difficult days for you, please know that our thoughts are often with you. Our deepest sympathy goes to you and your family.
On behalf of the management and the entire staff of the company
Dear Mrs./Mr. (Name),
We are saddened to learn that your husband/wife has passed away.
I would like to express our heartfelt condolences, also on behalf of all our employees.
In such a personally difficult time, it is important to stand together – this makes it easier to deal with the grief.
For the coming time we wish you much strength and the support of your family, relatives and friends. If we can assist you in any way, please do not hesitate to contact me. We will gladly try to assist you and help you further.
In sincere participation
Dear Mrs/Mr (Name),
It is with sadness that we remember (name). She/He was a partner with whom we were able to work together in a spirit of trust for many years. My colleagues and I would like to express our sincere condolences to you and your family.
I do not want to say many words, because I can imagine how difficult these days are for you. We would like to help you and stand by you in this very difficult time.
In our thoughts we accompany you in this difficult hour
Your (name)
We mourn
(name)
On (date) our longtime employee (name) passed away.
We have all come to know (name) as a fun-loving and dedicated woman/man who made a decisive contribution to the development of (department) in our company. We are all the more saddened by her/his sudden and much too early death.
Our sympathy in these difficult hours goes to her/his life partner, her/his family and all those who were close to him/her.
We will remember (name) as a very special person.
In silent sorrow and gratitude
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen of (Company),
I have the sad duty to inform you of the death of our employee. Managing Director) Mrs/Mr (name) who passed away on (date) at the age of (number) years.
For …… years she/he has belonged to our company as (function of the deceased). We experience this sudden farewell not only as a business loss, but also as a human loss, since we had a trusting partnership with (name).
We look back with gratitude on the years spent together in the past and remember many situations with the deceased, who always put all his or her efforts into the service of our overarching task and was also known to you through his or her work with us.
We are not able to stop life, but we want to remember (name) with pleasure and often with her/his unmistakable manner and her/his energetic commitment and thus keep her/his meritorious memory alive. Her/his work has left a mark not only in the company but also in our hearts.
In these days our sympathy goes especially to the family and all relatives.
Dear Mrs./Mr. (Name),
A few days ago, we had to report the sad news of the death of (Name),
Having said a painful goodbye to (name), we must now turn our attention back to the fulfillment of our tasks. As much as we are saddened by the loss of (name), we also know that the work we do for our customers must continue.
Rest assured, I and the entire team of the business unit (department) will do everything possible to ensure that the cooperation can continue without any restrictions and without any reduction in quality.
Our Mr./Mrs. (name), the long-time employee of (name), is entrusted with the provisional replacement with immediate effect until the management and organization of this business unit is reorganized. I will inform you in due time about personnel changes.
Please continue to place your trust in (name) and the members of her/his team. Turn to her/him with all your requests.
We thank you for the trust you have placed in us so far and hope, especially after this fateful blow, for your support and also for continued trusting and good cooperation.
With sincere thanks and greetings I remain today
The many letters of condolence, the numerous donations of flowers and money, the words of comfort, the silent handshakes on the death of (name) have shown us how much the deceased had won friends beyond the circle of his work.
We thank everyone for the sincere sympathy in their silent prayer.
It is hard to lose a loved one, but it is comforting to know how much love, friendship and respect was shown to him/her.
Thank you to all who felt connected with us and expressed your sympathy in so many ways, as well as to all who supported him on his last journey
Dear Mrs./Mr. (Name),
the loss of a person who is suddenly torn from life causes unbearable pain, and words of comfort are often hard to find. This letter is to express to you our deepest sympathy and to say that our hearts are also full of sorrow. In our thoughts we accompany you in this difficult hour.
We cannot take away the sorrow, we cannot ease the pain you feel. All we can do is feel with you and be in your thoughts during this difficult time In deepest sympathy and grief
Your (name)
Dear Mrs/Mr (Name),
I regret to inform you with this letter the sad news that Mr./Mrs. (Name) has passed away. As one of our long-time and valued employees, he/she has left a huge void in our company that will be difficult to close. We deeply mourn this loss of our employee and colleague.
Since you, as our business partner, are naturally entitled to a competent contact person, we refer you to Mr./Mrs. (name), who has succeeded Mr./Mrs. (name of the deceased) at short notice and is familiar with his business affairs.
We hope to continue to work together.
With kind regards
A voice that was so familiar is silent. A person who was always there for us is no longer alive. Past images pass in thoughts. Remembrance and gratitude remain.
There is nothing that can replace the absence of a loved one for us. The more beautiful and full of memories, the harder the separation – but the gratitude gives a quiet joy in the mourning. One carries the past beauty within oneself like a precious gift.
Business formulations for condolences – poems
Think of a picture.Wide sea.
A sailing ship sets its white sails
And glides out into the open sea.
You see it getting smaller and smaller.
Where water and sky meet,
it disappears.
Someone says: now it is gone.
Another says: it comes.
Death is a horizon, and a horizon
is nothing but the limit
of our seeing.
When we mourn for a human being,
others rejoice,
to see him again behind the border.
Our dead are not absent,
but only invisible.
you look with your eyes full of light
in our eyes full of sorrow.
(Augustine)
And always somewhere are traces of your life:
Thoughts, images, moments and feelings. They will always remind us of you
To remember you and never let you forget.
We meant and mean we still need it.
God meant it to be enough.
The time to seek God is this life.
The time to find God is death.
The time to possess God is eternity.
Quietly, without a word,
you went away from your loved ones.
Have a thousand thanks for your effort,
We’ll never forget you.
A voice,
that was familiar to us is silent.
A human being,
who was always there for us,
do not live anymore.
What we have left is love,
Thanks and remembrance of many happy years (hours).
We are but guests on earth
And wander without rest
with many a grievance
to the eternal homeland.
The most precious legacy of a person is the trace,
that his love has left in our hearts.
No one is asked when it is right for him to say goodbye to people,
habits, itself.
Sometime suddenly you have to deal with it, accept this farewell,
this pain of dying, this collapsing to break open anew.
Not only do we want to mourn,
that we lost him,
but be thankful,
that we have had him.
The last is not death,
but resurrection.
And in the end not loss,
but eternal completion.
Ask not why, ask not what for,
then your heart will never rest.
On your wherefore, on your why,
but the mouth of fate remains silent.
God knows why, God knows what for,
this knowledge gives rest to the heart.
To live is to be ready,
to die someday,
To love is to be ready,
sometime to say goodbye.
We must accept,
what is unacceptable.
We had to give up,
What we wanted to hold on to.
We must accept the unchangeable.
So suddenly came the parting hour,
broken is your young heart.
Oh God, how heavy is this hour,
how unspeakable is our pain.
When the Creator made us,
he put in each of us a piece
of his heart. And he wants,
that his heart returns to him.
One day I went to the withered rose,
The sun gently strokes yours already
Leaves give way and wither – and I saw,
that she would soon die.
"Are you afraid of death?" I asked her.
To which she replied: "But no! But I have
lived, I have blossomed and used my powers,
as much as I could.
Can you ask more of me?"
Death has no meaning –
I have only gone next door.
I remain who I am.
And you too remain the same.
What we mean to each other remains.
Call me by a familiar name,
speak to me in the usual way
and do not change your tone!
Do not wrap yourselves in cloaks
from silence and sorrow –
laughing as always at the little jokes,
that we shared.
When you speak of me,
It does so without remorse and without any sadness.
Life always means life – it remains
always – without interruption.
You do not see me, but I am with you in thought.
I’ll wait for you for a while –
Somewhere, close by –
just a few streets away.
(Henry Scott Holland)
As if life were not different
Than the burning of a light!
Not a single particle is lost,
but we ourselves go into nothingness!
For what we call body and soul,
so firmly shaped into one hardly,
it dissolves into a thousand particles
And swarming through the barren space.
The same life always prevails.
Nature goes its eternal course;
in a thousand newly created beings
these thousand particles rise up.
(Theodor Storm)
The wind blows a leaf from the tree,
of many leaves one,
this one leaf, you hardly notice it,
for one is none.
But this leaf alone
was a part of our life,
So this one leaf alone
miss us again and again.
We do not want to be desolate,
that we have lost her,
but be grateful,
That we have had.
We cannot take away the sorrow.
But what we can do
Drying each other’s tears.
When I am dead,
cry for me a little,
think of me sometimes,
but not too often.
Think of me from time to time,
as I was in life,
sometimes it’s fun to remember,
but only briefly.
Let me in peace,
I leave you in peace,
and as long as you are alive,
your thoughts should be with the living.
Death is not the end
death is only the turning point
beginning of eternity
I go on, just a little further.
Go into God’s joy, go into God’s light.
I was your companion for many years.
But now I go on to be with my Lord.
Lord, into your hands be the beginning and the end, be everything.
We should not mourn that we have lost the dead,
but be thankful that we have had them,
yes even now still possess:
For he who returns home to the Lord remains in the community of the
God’s family and has only gone ahead.
There is much that is sad in the world and much that is beautiful.
Sometimes the sad seems to have more power,
Than one can bear, then meanwhile quietly strengthens
the beautiful and touches our soul again.
(Hugo v. Hofmannsthal)
I look down on you every day,
and you know what I ask myself every time?
Why do you grieve so much,
but I am there … protect you!
I’m not really gone ..
only in another very beautiful place.
Don’t cry for me so much anymore …
because you break my little heart with it too.
Want you to be happy and laugh heartily,
wants you to live and have joy in life!
Yet I will always be in your heart
and if you want, feel me –
you are not alone!
thoughts, pictures.
Moments,
give ourselves the
Certainty,
that the memory
never stops.
Be not despondent when it comes to saying goodbye.
A farewell is necessary before we can see each other again.
And a reunion, be it after moments, be it after
Lifetimes, is certain to those who are friends.
The one and only
Important in life
are the traces
Of love.
That we leave behind,
when we go away.
(Albert Schweitzer)
Grief and pain –
that no longer be there
of a dear person
Is inconceivable.
Comforting words
come from the heart
in these hard hours.
And things happen between heaven and earth,
which we do not understand, and we stand by silently and silently.
Life goes on,
The bond between us is
not cut up.
Time does not heal everything; but it comes closer
perhaps the incurable from the center.
(Ludwig Marcuse)
By good forces
wonderfully safe
we expect with confidence,
what may come.
God is with us
in the evening
and in the morning
and quite sure
on each new day.
(Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
A man’s home is not to be found on any map,
only in the hearts of the people who love him.
The usefulness of life is not in the
Length, it is in use: some have
Long lived, who yet has lived little.
(Montaigne)
Business phrases for expressions of condolence – Quotes
Life is changed, not taken away.
Far from the eye, eternally near to the heart.
Even where everything seems lost, something grows silently.
And good things will never end.
The cycle of life ends only on earth, but the light
continues to shine even in the heart.
Time passes, the memory never.
time does not heal all wounds,
it only teaches us how to deal with them!
What one possesses deep in his heart, one cannot lose even through death!
What remains? Memory – and a very deep feeling.
One thought on " Business wording for condolences and letters of sympathy "
- Hanna Adams13. August 2020
Thank you for the contribution to condolences in the working world. Our work colleague passed away unexpectedly and we would like to send flowers and a letter of condolence to the family or funeral home. Good to know that individually inscribed condolence cards are to be preferred to already pre-printed cards.