Beware! This was not a good funeral for our little family in a time of loss. I was the widow with four young children, and this funeral home allowed the entire funeral to be taken out from under me during the planning process without warning! Suddenly, it wasn't me planning my own husband's funeral any longer despite the fact that I had event planning experience. It all occurred due to a 3rd party wanting to drastically increase the funeral planning expenses in requesting a large amount of catering at the event site. In our case, the 3rd party wanted their own "private family sit down dinner", which from an event planning perspective, was not really possible since it could be an upwards of 400+ people showing up to the public funeral. So upon voicing that it was not a good option, the 3rd party offered to pay for it. Well, Bradshaw then allowed them to take *full* control of the entire funeral. Parts of the funeral were changed behind my back and without my knowledge in private 3rd party meetings that I was not invited to, despite the fact that I was the widow. My young children solely requested their father's thumb print, and Bradshaw stated that they *always* take a thumbprint of every single deceased person prior to cremation, yet somehow my husband's thumbprint went missing. Who knows if it was ever taken and/or given to the 3rd party or not, we never got it as requested by the children of the deceased. We did not get all of the death certificate copies either. Some of my personal property relating to my deceased husband was almost taken from me at the funeral home by other party members. As the widow, I only got a xeroxed copy of the guest book. Some of the funeral video was cut off that showed a incredibly strange setup within the visitation of me as the widow and the 3rd party standing very far away from me. More than half of the memorials were kept from me as the widow because of the 3rd party who took control of the funeral from us made the decision to separate many memorials out to themselves in locked up boxes by the funeral home. Locked up? Why? What is this, the wild wild west? A very much uncalled for action taken by this funeral home. Bradshaw continued to allow things to occur like an impromptu meeting immediately following the funeral for some memorials to be flung across the table at me while my four children sat in the car crying after a very long day. It was absolutely uncalled for in treatment as a widow and now single mom to four children. It was a very shady and rather unprofessional experience during a time when my loss, grief and shock were at the highest. I'm extremely disappointed in Bradshaw in conducting themselves like this business-wise. If Bradshaw allows 3rd parties to enter the funeral planning process while the widow is trying to plan and without warning take it over, then they should be held accountable for the mistreatment as well. There is much more that I cannot publicly detail here. If Bradshaw deals with death daily as a professional business, then surely they should know how to handle any type of situation where another 3rd party has it out for the widow because it is quite common to seek someone to blame in death - typically it's the surviving spouse. I received many other comments from funeral attendees afterwards that it was rather disappointing in how the funeral was run and the overall experience of it. (Stillwater, MN location) read more
