Distressing Service

10/08/2018

Bereavement is a stressful process and funeral Directors play a vital role in easing the process for the bereaved. We had a terrible experience with this firm. What made matters worse for us was that when we raised the issue, any mistake was denied and Hollowell Funeral Directors took no responsibility.

For many, part of the grieving process is to visit the deceased in the chapel of rest. In our case, due to delays at the hospital, there was a 12 day delay in the deceased being put into the care of Hollowell Funeral Directors and it was a week later before we were able to visit (due to preparation time and appointment availability).

Unfortunately, this is not the first time we have lost a loved one so we sadly have experience of viewing deceased on multiple occasions and at various funeral directors although until this instance that has always been a rewarding experience.

Due to the elapsed time, we rang Hollowells to confirm that the deceased had been properly prepared and that the viewing would be a pleasant experience. It was confirmed to us that this was the case. However, the reality was somewhat different. Sadly, we could not even recognise the deceased despite Hollowells having a photograph to work from. We honestly thought we had been taken to the wrong room and the Hollowell representative even had to check the wrist band to check it was indeed the person we had arranged to visit. She could not recognise the deceased from the photograph either. This, as you can imaging, caused severe distress to us and is an experience we would rather not have had.

Our opinion is that little or no effort could have been made to make the deceased look like the photograph and how we remembered her; this is a point that Hollowell strongly deny. There appeared to have been no attempt to style hair or apply make up; again a point that Hollwell strongly deny.

When we raised the issue (after the funeral) it was suggested that we should have told them during the viewing so that they could correct things which I frankly find incredulous. This suggestion takes no account of the distressed state the viewing left us in. We wanted to leave as quickly as possible and try to forget the image now firmly in our heads.

I accept that there will be cases where it is not possible to present the deceased to match their living image due to elapsed time but surely when this is the case the funeral directors have a duty to inform people before the viewing. In this case we specifically asked and was assured that was not the case. Also, we have previously viewed deceased after a longer elapsed time due to post-mortem who looked just like we remembered them so we remain unclear why this was not possible in this instance.

My view is that Hollowells should never of allowed this to happen. They disagree and take no responsibility therefore you have to conclude it could happen to others.

As a result, I, my family and friends will never use this company again and cannot recommend them to others.