I DO NOT RECOMMEND entrusting this cemetery with the remains of your loved one, interment/committal service, or the maintenance of a respectable gravesite. As a hospice and palliative RN, I plan to share my experience with many colleagues in the industry as well as any family under my care that is considering All Saints as the final place of rest for their loved one.
On the day of my mother's funeral, while rife with grief and overwhelmed, I received a call from the superintendent of the cemetery informing me of his plan to hold her interment service under an "overhang" away from the gravesite due to the rain. He offered me several other choices with clear discouragement in his voice, and I felt compelled to agree to the overhang interment. This amounted to my Mom's casket being placed on a slab in a carport, without any signs of respect or reverence, flowers, etc. There was a rushed "prayer service" followed by the family quickly laying our roses (designed to be tossed into grave as Mom was lowered) on Mom's casket before being dismissed from the cemetery without being able to view Mom's final resting place.
It gets so much worse. Not allowed to visit her gravesite the day she was buried, the family returned this morning to visit. We found her flowers from the funeral home tossed over her grave as if dumped from a truck. Baskets of flowers thrown on their sides, between and underneath a disorganized mess of sprays. ICING ON THE CAKE was finding an empty water bottle nestled in the middle of the heap of flowers. Yes, there was trash on my mother's gravesite less than 24 hours after she was buried.
I called the office to express my concerns after leaving the cemetery today, and the response was as disrespectful as the treatment of my mother's final resting place. I was told that holding interment at the gravesite NEVER occurs in the rain due to this being a "dangerous condition". The office manager had no explanation for the superintendent's discouraging "offer" to hold the ceremony at Mom's gravesite if the family insisted. She then blamed the pathetic excuse for interment held in their carport on COVID. This makes zero sense. They allowed 30 people to gather closely under this overhang, and lack of reverence is not a part of the Diocese's direction for services during the pandemic.
I was then told the disaster overtop her grave was all because of the deer in the area. 1st- They spray flowers with deterrent, 2nd- Last I checked, deer lack opposable thumbs and the ability to pick up baskets of flowers, toss them on their sides, and cover them with sprays. Yes, there were deer prints, but not a single flower was touched/eaten.
There was nothing to be said about the staff tossing trash on a fresh gravesite, of course.
I NEVER leave reviews (especially negative ones), but simply could not let this go. As a hospice and palliative RN for over 5 years, I routinely offer suggestions to families regarding reputable cemeteries (All Saint's being a frequent recommendation), funeral homes, etc. After this experience, during the absolute worst time in my life, I must do my best to ensure other grieving families do not have to endure the same treatment. read more