I lost my 35 yr. old daughter to a tragic accidental drowning last July. She had been missing after leaving our home and was found in a river 3 days "after" she had passed and went to Heaven. Needless to say - her body had to be cremated. There was no choice for an open casket, etc. No good byes - just she walked out and that was the last day I saw her...
We did have to meet with a funeral home (of course, as there is no choice in this matter) and the representative there was very nice and personable. That is the reason for the 2nd Star in this rating. However, we chose to NOT elect any of their services offered such as: printed funeral/memorial cards; a memorial visitation in their parlors; a memorial urn that they offered for her ashes; etc... (we provided our own ashes container).
We DID however purchase 3 Sterling Silver Jewelry items that were to be filled with small portions of her ashes as a way to keep my daughter close to our hearts. (NOTE: I am sure the markup on these items were at least 75%).
Because my daughter needed an autopsy her body had to be transported to our State's Capitol. After the autopsy (due to the time issues) her body needed to be cremated almost immediately, so the cremation was completed in the city of our State's Capitol. (to be transferred back to our hometown after this deed was done)....
My fee or charges through the local Funeral Home were $2875.00 for basically these 3 things:
1). the meeting after her death with our family & selecting the jewelry items to contain her ashes (which, as I said previously) probably had a giant mark up in price.
2). they "received" her ashes "back" from the crematorium located in our state's capitol that actually conducted the procedure. Her ashes were placed in a plastic bag and then I was called by this local funeral home to let me know they were now back and I could pick them up. (they were in a plastic BAG)...
3). the funeral home allowed me to make $100 - $300. Per month payments on the bill for the past 7 months. As I understand after calling them today to ask them to settle and take $130. off the balance, the main crematorium would have demanded payment right away...so for the ability to make payments was appreciated and one of the reasons they couldn't "settle" for less than my balance due of $539.00. I was offering to settle it in full for $400., but no, they wouldn't do that.
It's not that I don't appreciate them, but moreover, that I object the way we are railroaded into paying exorbitant prices to lay our loved ones to rest (whatever that may look like) - ESPECIALLY when the conducting or "main" funeral home did NOT play a significant role in any part of the body's preparation.
I believe there should be more compassion and leniency when it comes to paying for something that was basically not offset by the company's own costs.... read more