I visited the Heartwood Preserve after reading an article about the facility in the Tampa Bay…read moreTimes. The grounds are open to the public during normal business hours. I walked the cemetery and the preserve. I didn't inquire info or pricing of services.. A description of what I viewed while on the property is below along with several photos. The Heartwood Preserve is a medium size property and is essentially the same environment as Starkey Park. In fact, the most southwest corner of Starkey Park borders the Heartwood Preserve. The border fence can seen on the preserve trial which is probably a quarter mile long. I walked through the cemetery portion of the property viewing two graves. Small grave markers can be seen along the trail indicating gravesites. One grave not pictured was circled by pinecones with pineneedles a top. Each gravesite was directly beside the cemetery pathway (not paved) identical to many field like trials at Starkey where many fan shaped palm fronds are. The welcome center was staffed when I visited and a separate employee was tending to the grounds and politely waved and smiled. I learned a lot by walking the property on my own and will consider burial on these grounds.

From the owner: Heartwood Preserve Conservation Cemetery is the first in the Tampa Bay region to design a…read moreconservation cemetery within a nature preserve. We conserve and permanently protect the endangered natural habitats found here by providing environmentally-friendly burial options. Heartwood Preserve is a special place that offers a serene environment to visitors. What makes Heartwood truly unique is we allow pre-planning for future cemetery needs.

I deeply regret choosing Spangler Cremation Service to cremate my beloved mother…read more It was my wish to have a lock of my mother's hair and a copy of her fingerprints before she was cremated. I paid extra for the fingerprints and watched Kevin write my requests on one of their forms. I stressed to Kevin that this was very important to me. I had not heard from them, so after 10 days I called to ask if I could pick up her ashes. They called back and said that they had "dropped the ball" on getting a lock of my mother's hair and her fingerprints. This has left me devastated and has caused great emotional turmoil. It was very important to me that my mother's remains were treated with dignity, so we read many reviews for several cremation businesses in the area. We weren't even looking for the cheapest service. We just wanted her remains to be treated with care. Although they state that they provide "compassionate care," the fact that they did not review the forms with my requests (which I watched them write down on the form before we paid for the service) before cremating my mother gives me little faith that they treated her with compassion or dignity. There are just some jobs that you cannot afford to "drop the ball" on. It is not like this was a coffee order that they got wrong. This was my mother's remains and I will never get her back. I will never be able to have a lock of her hair or her fingerprints like I wished. Handling the remains of our loved ones is sacred work and it seems like this business has been de-sensitized to the gravity of the service they provide. It is difficult to trust that I even have the correct ashes. And, as I said, the result of their carelessness has caused me great emotional distress. There is absolutely nothing that they can do to remedy this situation as it has left me utterly devastated. Please consider using someone else who will treat your loved one with dignity.

We chose Spangler because they had the highest overall rating and we weren't disappointed. Very…read morefriendly service, and every time I called I wasn't routed thru a five minute phone tree in order to speak to someone. My calls were answered by a real person every time.

The care and support from Nicole is unlike any experience I've ever been met with! She was…read moreabsolutely amazing and so supportive during this very difficult time. Her kindness and compassion will be something I will never forget. Thank you Nicole for all your understanding. The other staff at Oak Ridge Funeral Care was very kind and gracious as well and embraced my situation with complete understanding. Nancy Harris-Hart

The Location is the WinterHaven Location. This Location I used 2 times and They were Wonderful…read moreespecially The Director Nicole, she was very professional and sincere and extremely helpful. I give them 10 ! Thank you Nicole!!!

Robert performed high quality work and is a great guy!…read more We had a communication breakdown after he had a health set back and the person who supposed to keep customers updated failed to follow through.. He has since worked very hard, even on New Year Day to make it right by his customers. Excellent Craftsmanship, highly recommend this business!

There is peace here for your loved ones. There are abundance of trees for shade, and I quiet. It…read moreis serene.

I haven't been able to find out much about Fitzgerald Cemetery, other than it (and the street it's…read moreon) was named after the homesteader who sold the property the land it is located on for $10, a good deal back in the day. From pictures I've seen online, it was taken very good care of 20 years ago, but now it's become quite overgrown and I believe the groundskeepers are having a hard time keeping up. Many graves are overgrown, some completely to the point of being covered by their plants. Some graves are collapsing, a sad result of time. Garbage is found around the edges of the cemetery and from the weather wear, some has been there for quite some time. It's a beautiful place, with a lot of history. I just wish it was taken care of a bit better.

Candice treated our family with genuine compassion and respect during a very difficult time. What…read morestood out most was her honesty -- she did not try to play on our emotions or upsell any services. Some of the other funeral homes were horrible. Their prices were super high and they tried to guilt you into buying more expensive stuff. Her pricing was also remarkably fair, about half the cost of other funeral homes we checked in the Lakeland area. It's rare to find such integrity and care in this kind of business . We are truly grateful for her service and would highly recommend Casket company to anyone in need of trustworthy and compassionate help.

Jason is an absolute treasure. We had such difficulties with the original funeral home we had…read morechosen, difficulties that dragged on for weeks and would've cost us a lot more than what we had already paid had it not been for Jason and Central Florida Casket Store and Funeral Chapel. I wish we had known about Central Florida Casket Store earlier. It would have saved us a lot of frustration and heartache. Still, Jason stepped in and helped turn things around at the end and we successfully laid our loved one to rest without further incident. Thank you Jason and the Central Florida Casket Store and Chapel for your compassion, professionalism, and commitment to helping people through one of the most difficult times of their lives.