Claire Brother Funeral Home

I guess I should have waited fro the memorial service before I reviewed them.
First they neglected to keep me informed of what was going on with the death certificate, so I have been and am still waiting for it. All they will tell me is that the county rejected it, not why or when I might get it in. It is hard to take care of any of the issues left without a death certificate in hand.
Second, I requested they schedule a military memorial service with full military honors. They assured me that would handle it. When I got to his memorial service, they had not requested these honors. I was heartbroken.

While hard to be objective on rating such a service, I vacillate between three and four stars. Four sounds almost too effusive (similar to wearing a brightly colored item at a funeral) and three sounds almost funereal. [Sorry, I couldn’t resist.]
With my father’s hospitalization, I did some early research on funeral home packages since my father expressed a wish to be buried back in his native homeland; this meant that I couldn’t just use any «garden variety» funeral home but needed one experienced in repatriation.
My initial call was fielded by Mr. Riley Smith, proprietor of this business. With a pleasant, soothing, and patient voice, he explained their experience and package details. An upscale casket, all local transport, and funeral services would run $ 3,500. Airfare and consulate fees were understandably extra.
All subsequent calls were handled by Nelma, who is one of 3 staff members who also hail from my father’s homeland. She was also soothing, pleasant, and patient in all conversations.
So, what’s not to like? Well, in my discussion with Mr. Smith, payment options were limited to money order or check. No problem. During my first visit with Nelma, she said that credit cards would also be acceptable. When I offered to put down a deposit on the estimated bill by charging my credit card, I was surprised to hear that their credit card machine has been out for 3 weeks — so that option was closed. Interesting that this wasn’t mentioned at my visit a week earlier or during any of my daily phone calls to them to check in.
Another red flag was when they asked me to sign a contract for services that had that grand total left blank. After hemming a bit, I put it back to Nelma saying I was uncomfortable signing it as it was — and asked her to break out the calculator to finish the document. She did quickly comply with a smile but I found the situation distasteful at best, bordering on preying on distraught people at worst.
The other thing that rankled me was receiving a call 15 minutes before me and my family were to leave for the service to ask me if we wanted funeral programs printed up. All of this was arranged 3 days prior and I even stopped in a day before the service to pick up the death certificates. At that time, I mentioned that the draft and scanned photo were waiting in their in-​box ready for formatting. It made me wonder how skilled they were at what was essentially project management during a highly emotional time.
Since this is my first time at this particular rodeo, I don’t have a lot of other empirical data to compare against.
***
Flash-​forward to today: Having drafted the above text right after my father’s passing, I realize that time has indeed mellowed my feelings on the funeral home’s services. Much of the above incidents have been quietly sanded down by 18 months’ time and I can say that I’m content with their performance.
Dad’s service was a week after his passing — and his repatriation was one week afterward. Nelma got the requisite papers and preparations ready and Dad made it home just fine. I settled up with Nelma the day after the flight departed and everything was calm as I made out the check. Nelma told me that she was busy handling at least 5 referrals — apparently, there was some kind of death fad sweeping the local area — and that these 5 referrals were a direct result of my father’s service.
So, in a way, there’s proof of word-​of-​mouth marketing. I’d even be inclined to have them handle my own cremation, when the time comes decades later. I know it sounds trite but time does heal many wounds. Final ranking: A solid 3.75 stars, rounded up.