Cedar Hill Cemetery

This is the same place that had been cited MORE THAN ONCE for failing to mitigate the possibility of graves being unearthed due to weather, flooding, and the too close to the creek proximity of interments. Some graves WERE disturbed JUST THIS YEAR with caskets literally floating atop flooded terrain. So it’s surprising to me that this place is still in business at all, but I digress.
My BFF’s mother passed suddenly recently and she used their funeral services, sanctuary and reception hall for everything. The services they did provide her were not exactly stellar. My BFF seemed to have a somewhat decent experience with them handling her mom’s arrangements, as her mom looked good in the casket, they gave her a decent deal, and it was an easy «one stop shop» to include the funeral, repast and private cremation.
I was the singer for the service, along with a friend. My BFF tried to arrange our accompaniment music with Ms. Latimore. She told my BFF that she had downloaded our accompaniment music because they did not have the capability to play a CD (unheard of for any funeral home I’ve ever sung in) but was unsure of which version we would need so we needed to stop by the funeral home to listen to it. After leaving numerous messages for her over the next few days, I finally got an emailed reply from her. I told her that the other singer and I would simply bring our music on an iPod and come early, because she told my singer friend earlier that she had NOT downloaded our music and didn’t even know what we were talking about.
I purposely chose not to share all of this musical confusion with my BFF to minimize any added stress to her during this time. However, during the preview of the body the day before the funeral, Ms. Latimore shared this musical confusion with my BFF unnecessarily, and at the most inappropriate possible time. My BFF, visibly upset, asked me what was going on, as Ms. Latimore made it sound like myself and the other singer had caused confusion.
Then the day of the funeral, my singer friend and I came early to the funeral home to queue up the iPod. Ms. Latimore was not there, but her staff was. We explained to the young man what was necessary and he was able to get it set up, all while having a conversation with the young lady in the office, both of them complaining about people «calling with more deaths» at inopportuned hours.
The music for both my songs was played so low that I couldn’t hear it, so my friend asked them to raise the volume. They did slightly, but my friend asked that I have them raise the volume more for his song, which was the final song of the service. At this point, Ms. Latimore had arrived so I approached her to raise the volume for my friend. She was very rude and told me «the singer can never hear themselves! You ain’t gonna hear yourself in the monitor!» I told her I wasn’t trying to hear myself at all, just my background music, and my friend who was singing last would need to hear his at least. She said «we already turned yours up all the way! Y’all ain’t about to blow my damn speakers out!» I turned around and walked away to avoid a loud confrontation with her, as the funeral was still happening at this time. She yelled after me, «I’m serious!»
Then after the pastor finished the eulogy and benediction, she told the guests to remain in place for further instructions from the funeral director, which was Ms. Latimore. Ms. Latimore approached the podium and stated that they were currently at capacity and no one else could enter the funeral home nor attend the repast. She also stated that if you were not sitting in a seat at the repast, you needed to leave because they were at capacity. She was so noticeably rude and curt with this statement that other attendees remarked about it, so it was clearly not just my sensitivity.
This woman and her staff were honestly the least professional and least kind funeral servicers I have ever experienced, and being a singer, I experience a LOT of funeral servicers. I would admonish the staff at this place to be a little more mindful of the level of service they are providing, at every possible angle, because you never know who is watching and experiencing your services or in what role. This is particularly important when your business has already been cited by governing authorities for flat-​out wrongdoing! I realize people will keep dying and will keep needing funeral services. However, in the DMV, there are just thousands of them, so it doesn’t have to be Cedar Hill. Furthermore, in that profession, extra care is supposed to be taken to ensure peace for the family and ANYONE connected to the decedent. Otherwise, perhaps a career change is in order. The level of service that Ms. Latimore and her staff showed was not in line with funeral servicing. However, McDonald’s is hiring, and that seems more in line with the type of service they provided, so that could be a better career for them.
NEGATIVE 5 STARS