In the early morning in July 2011 I was awakened by the phone call that no one wants to receive. "Sir," the voice on the other end of the line began. "This is St. Mary's Hospital. I am very sorry but your mother has passed away," the kind nurse on the end of the end line delivered the terrible news. The rest of the morning was a whirlwind of phone calls, tears, and decisions that no one wants to make. Among those decisions was what funeral home my family would entrust to give my mother the kind of funeral she deserved. My family and I decided on using a local funeral home, the same funeral home that my mother had used for the burial of both of her parents. It was this spur of the moment decision made in the wee hours of the morning that turned that terrible day into one of the worst nightmares that my family and I have ever had to endure. We entrusted the care of our mother to this funeral home, and from the start we were taken advantage of and treated (we felt) in the same way one would be treated when buying a car. I never realized I would have to negotiate the price of my mother's funeral. First, the as we discovered later, the $1,200 price that was quoted to us for the embalming and transporting of my mother was double what other funeral homes in the area charge. Secondly the nearly $6,000 price we were quoted for the funeral did not even include the casket or the vault. The person whom I worked with at this funeral home went so far as to write a price on a piece of paper and slide it across the table at me. Once again I felt like I was buying a car. In no way were we treated with caring, respect,or dignity in our family's time of need. It was then that we decided to find another more caring, dignified funeral home to handle my mother's final arrangements. To our great relief we called Sutherland-Garnier funeral home, a trusted name in Centralia for years. All of the employees, owners, and directors were so caring and treated our family with respect, and my mother with dignity. We felt as if we were treated as part of their family, and they truly helped our family through a tragic time. Sutherland-Garnier turned the terrible events of the day my mother died into a lovely and fitting memorial for a wonderful woman who lived her life for others. Everything about the service, the funeral, and the experience as a whole was exactly what my mother would have wanted, and how she would have wanted to be remembered. Every detail was thoughtfully arranged and Sutheralnd-Garnier went above our expectations in creating a visitation and funeral that surrounded our family with loving memories of our mother. We will be forever grateful to the staff of Sutherland-Garnier for their help, their caring, and their support in our time of need. read more