When you need a funeral home, it is generally not a happy occasion. Pat, Brian, Chrissy, and Matt…read morehelped my family tremendously. They explained everything to us clearly and calmly. They let us know all of our options for making it a very personal celebration of my father's life. They are patient and have excellent attention to detail. The building itself is very welcoming. There is plenty of parking in the parking lot. I appreciate everything they did to help my family during a very difficult time. Nothing prepares you for the death of a loved one. Leber helped make it a less painful experience.

My husband and I rarely post reviews, but the William J. Leber Funeral Home in Chester, NJ,…read more deserves the most glowing review we can write. Our dear parents/parents-in-law passed away within two hours of one another, and from the Leber staff's very first interactions with the family, we knew we were in the best of hands. Every single person that we or our siblings emailed or met during this painful time was warm, kind, compassionate, and patient. The funeral home itself is beautiful, tasteful, and comfortable. It really did FEEL like a home, with several seating areas for conversations and water and coffee available during the entire wake. The staff turned our family photos into banners, a large poster, a wonderful slideshow, laminated cards, a lovely keepsake leaflet for all the guests, and even a blanket (!) that brightened the room and added so much color and personality. They took care of every detail, including submitting to the local newspapers the obituaries the family had written. They directed the pall bearers expertly both at the church service and at the burial site. Everything was done with such care and compassion from beginning to end and we can't thank them enough.

Great team, they took care and my family and I. Will recommend to anyone during these tough timesread more

beware when dealing with Bill Hepplewhite At Davis and Hepplewhite funeral home. we had him handle…read moremy Grandmothers entire funeral. including transport from Fl back to NJ and all of the Cemetery arrangements. I inquired a year prior regarding picking out a plot and was told by Bill Hepplewhite at that time that we could not do that it was the next available plot that was available at the time of her death. when my Grandmother passed we left it to Bill Hepplewhite. he failed to tell us that when the next available single grave plot came up in that particular cemetery that we would not be able to have an upright grave stone but instead would have to have a flat to the ground grave marker which we did not want. Had we been told that upfront, we would have chosen the next available double plot. Bill Hepplewhite tried to blame everyone including my family, the cemetary and the Netcong Monument company. and his final words to me were"well what do you think your going to do about it now?" Beware when dealing with this funeral home and Bill Hepplewhite himself. He is very unprofessional and for someone that has been in this business a long time he shouldn't have messed that up and tried to place blame on everyone else. I'm told by his peers that he never takes responsibility for and mess ups. Proceed with caution with Davis and Hepplewhite funeral home.

Had to be here for a family members funeral. They were very helpful and accommodating for my…read morefamily. Thank you again in our unfortunate time.

They have been a family owned business since 1936. They have been at this location since 1975. Over…read morethe years I have attended many funerals for friends and fellow firefighters at Tuttles and always found them to be a very caring funeral home. I have gotten to know Todd Tuddle personally an he and his staff will go out of there way to make the death of your loved one as easy as possible. Hopefully you won't need there services any time soon but if you do I recommend them!

Dominick Ruggerio's dedication , service and compassion was outstanding! He took care of every…read moredetail in planning my father's service and guided our family throughout the process. He is a true professional and I am grateful for all he did for us.

This particular funeral home in Dover Nj is the absolute WORST! I am beyond devastated that I made…read morethe mistake of allowing the man by the name of Dominick, cremate my sister! Initially upon dealing with this guy, he came off as polite just to reel me into signing papers to getting him paid. That was by far the most horrible choice I could've made! As if my sisters passing wasn't enough, dealing with this person has been beyond traumatizing! I would highly recommend anybody facing the unfortunate circumstances of having to plan a cremation or burial, DO NOT GO HERE!! I just called to follow up on a necklace I ordered to have my sisters ashes put into it, a $200 necklace by the way, that I ordered January 11th, I believe. Dominick said it would take 7-10 days to receive my necklace, I still do not have it. I called today and he yelled "your sister hasn't even been DEAD a full month and you're already calling me when I told you the necklace was on back order!!!!" Please, please! Help me spread the word and help another family avoid having to go through this with these people!

Communication horrible and then threaten bc of emergency that would not be able to bury my loved…read moreone??? CEMENTARY SAID THATS RIDICULOUS.

Grandfather was buried here in 2007. Two things stand out that make me not even want to give them…read moretwo stars: -They took on a very circuitous route (local roads) when we could have taken the highway and been there in 15 minutes for the actual burial. Due to this, half of our funeral procession got lost and didn't even go to the burial and straight to the reception after. This is not reason #1 of #2 why I was annoyed, though. -At the actual funeral, they had the nerve to approach my father (whose father we were burying) with a bill. Beyond unacceptable. We had been going to this funeral home for years apparently, but that alone is enough for me to ever want to go there again. They also turned the lights out on us when we were outside talking after the wake was over the night before, which was very childish too. Could have just came out and told us it was time to leave. We were paying them thousands of dollars for a nice setup, and that is the treatment we got? Obnoxious.

Steven and his staff were so helpful Thru such a painful…read moretime for our family. He walked us thru the process and listened to any concerns we had. Will def recommend the funeral home to others in their time of need. Thanks again Steve

I cannot say enough wonderful things about Steve Priola and his team. My second Daughter was born…read morestill, devastated we reached out to Steve. This was a very tough time for our family and Steve took excellent care of us. Steve handled everything top to bottom and made sure we were comfortable with what we had chosen. He's compassionate, responsive, reliable, knowledgeable (the list goes on) but most importantly he is there with you til the end. Thank you so much for everything. The services were beautiful and we are so grateful for everything that you did.

I don't know for how long they've been in business, but it seems as if it has been forever, at…read moreleast to my memory. I grew up in the area and I can't remember a time when they didn't exist. The housing development standing behind their establishment now used to be a large empty field way back when. My grade school (Packanack) is just a stone's throw away, across Ratzer Rd. The Catholic Church my oldest friend had to attend as a kid is also directly across the street (when I briefly flirted with the idea of converting to Catholicism but had trouble with the idea of confessing my deepest transgressions and sins to a celibate priest I didn't know, I asked my friend what he used to confess to when he went to confession, and he said, "I made stuff up."). My 1st job at 13 was delivering Wayne Today newspapers up Ratzer Rd. in the opposite direction from Vander May (I was a scrawny nerd trying to maneuver my ramshackle bicycle up the heavily traveled roadway with a heavy canvas bag of newspapers on my shoulder in all kinds of bad weather). Still, I've only been inside Vander May twice, and never had to arrange a funeral for one of my relatives here. When my oldest friend's mother died...a kind, sweet woman I had known all my life practically...her wake/funeral was held here. I hadn't had much experience with funeral homes at that point, but everything proceeded as it's supposed to, in a professional and respectful way. My main memory of that day is seeing my friend's mother in death, and maybe for the first time confronting the reality of mortality. People you grew up around and came to love weren't going to be here forever, no matter how much you wanted to deny that bitter fact, or retreat from it. Years later, my friend's father passed, and his wake/funeral was also held at Vander May. I was older, my mother was dying torturously of cancer, and this was the man who had once referred to me as "his 3rd son," so maybe it hit me harder than it might have under different circumstances, but at his wake, I had to leave abruptly, as I started crying like a little kid. I rode up Ratzer Rd., past my old school, past where he had lived and raised his family, with tears streaming down. He was a unique man, in my experience--- very tough, a man who had been hardened by life, but maintained a good heart and spirit in spite of all that. He once owned 3 bars in Paterson, and knew a wide variety of people: actors, politicians, policemen, mobsters. His opinions of them weren't always what you would expect-- he didn't like Lou Costello, was supportive of crooked political boss Joe Bozzo, and thought mob boss Willie Moretti was a good guy (in his younger years, he palled around with Moretti's nephew, and once told me that Moretti had built a dollhouse for his daughter that was "as big as the room we're sitting in right now."). He also knew FBI agent Joe Pistone aka Donnie Brasco, who infiltrated the Bonanno crime family in NYC and was the subject of a movie starring Johnny Depp. In fact, Pistone arranged for my friend's father and his friend (my friend's godfather-- real godfather, not Mario Puzo's version) to have bit parts in the movie. (My friend's father grew impatient with the movie making process and didn't stick around, but my friend's godfather remained, and you can see him briefly in the scene where Depp and Mike Madsen walk through a room where flunkies are counting gambling proceeds.) Because of the emotional turmoil I was going through at the time with my mother's situation and the death of my friend's father, I was in a bit of a daze, but I do remember that...once again...everything was handled in a professional and compassionate manner. I remember my friend giving the eulogy for his father, something I would never have had the grit or strength to do. There's ample parking, and my last memory of Vander May is walking out to my car as we were to proceed to the cemetery. I remember seeing a familiar looking guy with sunglasses standing in the parking lot, and later, I asked my friend, "Was that guy in the parking lot who I thought it was?" "Yeah," my friend answered, "It was Pistone. He came to pay his respects." I guess the bottom line is that if you're in business for as long as Vander May has been, you're obviously doing something right, whether you're running a store, a restaurant, or a funeral home. I would imagine that successfully running a funeral home can be uniquely daunting. In addition to conducting the nuts-and-bolts business aspects of it, you have to deal sensitively, compassionately and professionally with a wide variety of people facing the often unexpected, tragic loss of loved ones, the harsh reality and finality of death, the accompanying emotions of grief and despair, pain and trauma, good memories and bad ones. My experiences with Vander May haven't been direct in the sense that I've had to arrange funerals here myself for loved ones, but I wouldn't hesitate in recommending them to anyone.

Go here for a funeral for your loved one! Charlie and the staff did an amazing job working with me…read morethrough this difficult process. The constant graceful communication and patience despite all my questions at all hours of the night and many requests was greatly appreciated. I was worried that I wouldn't have sufficient photos collages and they went above and beyond even surprising me with custom creations that I will likely frame or use again at an annual memorial celebration. The attention to detail and quality helped to facilitate a beautiful tribute to my father. While the overall process felt like an intense wedding to plan, Charlie directed the process with grace and tact each step of the way providing me with some comfort and reassurance as I wanted perfection for this final walk down the aisle with my dad. The Cemetary and church were also coordinated by Charlie and he made this easy as there were multiple moving pieces. The morning of I was a little upset because some of the posters I printed were too large and weren't laying right but Gareth went to the rescue and was able to trim the edge and posted it on a hard board so it would be perfect. I loved the photo handouts for all guests and the laminated cards and laminated obituary. They offered quality touches that I haven't seen at Vander Platt which is where I was trying to originally go. Everything happens for a good reason. I'm happy I landed here for my dads funeral/wake. They give you a checklist and make everything easy for you...there are SO many decisions to make. Even the donation cards were a nice touch. They provided me with an extra glass bowl so I could supply gum for guests and accommodated my every need and question. I loved the program and directions that were provided to the guests. Also, they packaged up everything extra in a neat bag with a bow and provide an unlimited number of custom thank you cards. This place is top notch and I'm SO GLAD I put my trust in Charlie and the staff at Vander May! Thank you for a beautiful day to remember my dad!

On Friday, February 6, 2026, my family laid to rest my dear sister, resting in peace next to her…read morebeloved husband. Driving into the cemetery, after a rather long, arduous drive on parkway north, we entered a beautiful, peaceful catholic cemetery.. so lovely, I thought. Unfortunately, I had to deal with two women working in the cemetery office. As we approached the counter, the workers took their sweet time to address us. Then unfortunately, this troll-like woman, whom I believe was Lydia, rummaged through our paperwork with much distain and rudeness. She was without a doubt, the most ignorant, and despicable person I unfortunately had to encounter. Believe me, these were especially trying times for myself and family. However, the other employee came to the counter and resolved the issue, which I might add, was caused by their office giving the funeral director of Evergreen Funeral Home, Middletown,NJ., incorrect or not specific requirements needed for the paperwork. Here's a thought Lydia, if you are so unhappy being employed by the Archdiocese, Gate of Heaven Cemetery, in which you deal with bereaved families , you should seek employment more suitable to your demeanor and personality...such as a garbage depot. ja

Want to say "Thank You" to Father Joe, the new Chaplain at the cemetery. When I dropped by the…read moreMausoleum to say a prayer in the chapel I noticed a table set up near the entrance where Father Joe had a sign introducing himself as the Chaplain, offering to say a prayer for those whose names could be written on paper provided and asking visitors to take one of the crosses on a mirror on the table. I planned to return to the Mausoleum after visiting the graves of my relatives to get a cross before leaving. While I was at the gravesite of a loved one, a car pulled up and Father Joe introduced himself. He requested that I write a name down of a loved one who he could pray for and he gave me a Holy Spirit Pin to hold onto. He felt like so genuine a human being and meeting him lifted my spirits and felt so comforting. Father Joe seems like a truly welcome addition to Gate of Heaven and it is so wonderful to personally experience how he is making himself available for spiritual guidance to visitors