| rev:text
| - I qualify this review on the basis that the only time one needs to be at a mortuary is to make arrangements for a loved one. My father had passed at the end of the month and I went to Las Vegas immediately since I was the closest of the out of town family. Palm Mortuary was recommended highly and I was with my brother and mother to make the preparations.
First and foremost, we were assisted by one of my father's brother in arms, a Knight of Columbus member (this is a Catholic group that assists with Church activities). I commend him for his guidance and his help to make the process easier. The conversation with one of the directors went smoothly enough. You know that you get the usual condolences and discussion of the process. We had not gotten to look at the costs beforehand but were thinking, this is the process and we will be told what and when and how much. All of this went smoothly within the context of costs for the service and extras that might cost accordingly. Besides the standard items, caskets, urns and memorial items for the service, the basic cost of the service, and of course the visitation room and chapel. Our director mentioned that most Pilipinos like bringing food for the visitation and that since the funeral home has a chapel, the casket will be in that room from 1-7 and for another $1000 dollars for a separate room where one can host (meet) with family with food and drink. it is not normally custom to have food and drink in the area. Based on the cost and of course knowing my family, I knew we would not be interested in the extra room. Grief can be done in the chapel along with my father's body in the casket. We decided to forgo this decision until we discussed it with the rest of my family along with my mother who is in not in the mood to discuss such subjects in front of others.
After making some decisions, we informed Palm of our decision to forgo the extra room and was happy to have my father in the chapel for the visitation for the entire period 1-7. We informed the mortuary within 2 days so that the room that was reserved can be used by others if any since this is still is a business. But here is where everything became an exercise in the fine print. As I mentioned before, we discussed the chapel for 1-7 and an extra room for $1000. We dropped the extra room so we assumed the chapel would be our only room from 1-7. Fine print, the chapel will only be used for 1 hour for any type of service. This was not mentioned verbally and this was what got my brother and my craw.
After conversations with both the director and the manager of the director, we were told that we would have the visitation room from 1-4 and the chapel from 4-7 for any service(the Knights of Columbus does a prayer service). This was really not the experience we were seeking. So the warning for others, make sure you have the details and everything in front of you before you make a decision. We were not price shopping for a funeral home, we wanted the best service with no hassle. I am afraid we didn't get it at Palm.
Everything else went smoothly from the visitation the transfer from visitation to chapel, the service at the chapel. Although I would like to say that the whole event ended on a good note, I can say that as soon as the mass service (the next day) was over and my father's casket was taken away. I felt a little bit exhausted. When the flowers needed at the church needed to be taken care of, Palm was so quick out of the box that I was not able to ask them to take them away (no one wanted it).
Positives, the service went smoothly. Negatives, fine print does no favors for the grieving. Positive you can purchase things outside of the funeral home, casket at Costco, flowers from known floral shops, memorials online and other places. Negatives, if you are grieving and have no time to do all of the work to look for these items, you will be gouged with prices at the funeral home. It is a business after all.
I know you might never use this place but if you do, just make sure that you have someone who can be calm and collected to help you through.
Thanks Don!
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)