Hospice social workers, chaplains, nurses, bereavement coordinators, and volunteers walk with families through the hardest days of their lives. We’d love to make that work a little easier.
Everything on this page is free for you to use and share with the families you serve: 17 printable resources, from bedside conversations to the first holidays, including full workbooks for grieving children and teens.
Free Printables for Families
At the bedside and planning ahead
- Questions to Ask While There’s Time: eleven pages to gather their loved one’s stories, the facts for the obituary (including detailed military service), their favorites for the service, and lined pages for notes.
- Gentle Words: four pages for visitors: what to say, words to gently avoid, ways to help without words, and cut-out pocket cards. A nice one to hand to friends and family before they visit.
- My Funeral Wishes Worksheet: for patients who want to share their wishes: the service, music and readings, the photo for their program, where important papers are, and a message to loved ones.
- My Legacy Letters: prompts, “Open When” letter ideas, a 5-line letter for tired days, a guide for writing on someone’s behalf, and stationery.
After a death
- Funeral Planning Checklist: what to do in the first days and weeks, one step at a time.
- Fill-in-the-Blank Obituary Templates: five templates, from traditional to military and veteran, with writing tips.
- Getting Through the First Holidays After a Loss: a planner for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and other gatherings.
For grieving children and teens
- When a Parent Dies: Family Toolkit: 31 pages for a surviving parent: what to say, a letter for the teacher, story cards, and pages for the child to keep.
- My Memory Book: 19 pages for children of all ages, including a “While You’re Still Here” page for hospice visits.
- The Colors of Grief: 20 gentle coloring pages, each with a comforting message.
- Carrying You With Me workbooks: six research-based workbooks and journals, for kids (5 to 11) and teens (12 to 18), each written for a different kind of loss: after an illness, after a sudden death, and after a violent loss. Each has 50 journal prompts, never asks a child to describe the death, and is ready to print and coil-bind.
- After a Violent Loss: Family Resource Planner: 16 pages for families after a homicide or other violent death.
Especially for hospice families: the illness workbooks
Written for children and teens whose parent or loved one is dying, or has died, after an illness. They cover grieving before the death, hospice, watching their person change, caregiving, relief and guilt, and worries about their own health. Each includes optional pages for families whose person is still living, like recording their voice and asking about their life, so children can begin during hospice care.
See and Download All Free Printables →
Permission to Print and Share
You’re welcome to print our free printables in any quantity and share them with patients and families, at no cost and with no need to ask. You can include them in admission or bereavement packets, leave them in family rooms, bring them on visits, or use the workbooks in children’s grief groups and camps. We only ask that you keep the Noted & Charmed name on them.
Our printables are comfort and support resources based on published research and guidance from grief organizations. They are not therapy or a substitute for professional care.
A Flyer for Your Family Room
This one-page flyer lists our free printables with a QR code families can scan to download them. There’s a line at the bottom to write in your hospice’s name. It’s a simple way to share resources on a bulletin board or in a folder.
Talking With Patients About Their Wishes
Some patients find real peace in choosing a hymn, a reading, or the photo they’d like used. The My Funeral Wishes worksheet can give that conversation a gentle place to start, and it can be filled in a little at a time, with or without family present. Our guide Planning Your Own Funeral walks through each section in plain, warm language.
For families, our guide When Someone You Love Is in Hospice: Preparing Together covers time together, gathering stories, keepsakes, including children, and caring for themselves. For visitors, see What to Say When Visiting Someone in Hospice. For children, see Helping Children Understand Hospice and Death.
When Families Need Help With the Program
The funeral program is one of the few things families get to shape themselves, and it becomes a keepsake. We can help in two ways:
- Templates: editable in free Canva, ready to print at home or any copy shop.
- Done For You: families send us their photos and details, and we build the whole program for them, including themed designs that reflect the life their loved one lived.
Patients can even choose their program ahead of time, so their family has one less decision to make.
Let’s Work Together
If you’d like printed copies for your team, have ideas for a resource that would help your families, or simply want to say hello, we’d love to hear from you. Contact us here.
Thank you for the care you give. — C. Lindorfer, Noted & Charmed