Note: This review pertains to a ghost box/instrumental trans-communication (ITC) session conducted…read moreon Friday, May 18, 2018. If you're unfamiliar with ITC, then please scroll to the end of the review for an explanation. Rose Hill Cemetery in Tyler, Texas has a reputation for being haunted, so I spent a sunny afternoon walking amongst the graves and chatting with anyone willing to communicate. Patience is a virtue in the ITC field; on most occasions, at least thirty minutes will pass before anything relevant comes through. My experience at Rose Hill was an exception, as I began receiving clear, relevant validations only moments after arriving. According to legend, the cemetery is haunted by at least two spirits: a beloved piano teacher named Madge Ward and a second unidentified "dark spirit" infamous for following visitors home and causing sleep paralysis. The latter story strikes as apocryphal, though I did note the numerological synchronicity between the phenomenon of sleep paralysis and my room number at the motel.* I encountered nothing "dark" or unwelcoming at Rose Hill, but I'm convinced I did interact with Mrs. Ward. As I approached her mausoleum (an impressive marble replica of a grand piano), I introduced myself and asked if she could play a tune for me. Local residents have reported hearing a melancholy piano tune playing late at night, so I hoped to document it myself. Alas, I heard no music but received a validation when I asked the name of her favorite musician. The response was loud and clear: "Satie." Erik Satie was a famous French composer and pianist, so the validation made sense. Moments later, I heard the name "Vaughn" come through several times in rapid succession. I then happened upon a grave belonging to a Mr. and Mrs. Vaughn. Names are great validations, but I want to push ITC further. The ultimate goal is to engage spirits in one-on-one conversations and learn more from beyond the grave. My interaction with the Vaughns was a step in that direction. I asked, "Mr. and Mrs. Vaughn, do spirits like you stay here or do you visit only on occasion?" The reply: "We come down...at times." Many ITC practitioners -- including several who do this professionally -- have received similar replies in response to that question. The consensus is that spirits ascend to a higher plane (what some might call "heaven") and return here at will. We still have much to learn, but validations like these are providing remarkable insight into life after death. The grounds at Rose Hill were adorned with hundreds of American flags, presumably in anticipation of Memorial Day. I've found that spirits of war veterans are eager to discuss their military service, so I began asking questions about World War II, the Korean War, and Vietnam. The last time I asked a spirit about his service in World War II, I captured one of my favorite replies ever: "Yeah, I got a message: killed damn Nazis!" The spirits at Rose Hill were not as dramatic, but I eventually connected with a veteran identifying himself as "Bert." I soon found a grave belonging to Cpl. Bert Halligan, who had passed away in 2013. I thanked Cpl. Halligan for his service and asked if he had fought in any wars. The words "Nam" and "war" came through my Spiritus app only seconds later. I wished to learn more about Mr. Halligan's life, but I seemed to lose the connection. My experience at Rose Hill was extraordinary and I plan to return the next time I visit Tyler. If anyone reading this review has recorded evidence of Madge Ward's haunting piano music, please let me know! Perhaps the "melancholy tune" in question is "Trois Gymnopédies" by none other than Erik Satie! *My room number was 315. In occult circles, 3:15 AM refers to the "witching hour," a time when many individuals reportedly suffer from spirit-induced sleep paralysis. In the field of astrology, however, the number "315" is an "angel number," a sign of protection from all things evil. I consider numerology nothing more than an amusing mental exercise, but I enjoy crawling down that rabbit hole from time to time! ________________________________________________ For those new to the field of "ghost hunting," a term I dislike due to its implications (I'm not "hunting" ghosts), instrumental trans-communication (ITC) refers to the use of physical "spirit boxes" and apps to communicate with spirits. These devices facilitate communication by providing phonetic gibberish (random audio samples, white noise) that spirits can manipulate to form words and sentences. They don't use their own voices; they use whatever audio source the operator provides. ITC is similar to electronic voice phenomena (EVP), but the latter refers to disembodied voices captured from thin air, which even the most seasoned paranormal researchers have difficulty obtaining. ITC typically yields more results, as spirits seem to be more adroit at manipulating raw audio than they are at producing EVP.

We were very impressed with the compassionate and understanding service we received from…read moreBoren-Conner Funeral Home. They helped us through each step which we have never faced before. Thank you for being there for us during this hard time. I would recommend them to everyone.

we had crmation services w/ boren -conner and they were ''personable ,profsional and caring . they…read moremade everything for easy .

Never do business with this company! they could care less about meeting deadlines and could really…read morecare less about your loved one needing a stone on their naked grave! they lie profusely! I'm gathering all my legal evidence against them now and will keep you posted! message me if you are in the same situation! They are completely unethical and cruel! if you have experienced any stress when dealing with this company, please reach out. we are working on a class action suit against Martus Stone. Thank you!

In 2009, my mother paid 5000 to have a double headstone placed on my father's grave. it is a…read morebeautiful piece of marble and we were very pleased. My mother recently passed and I went to Martus Stone to have her death date engraved. It was understood there could be a short delay due to wet weather and other jobs. They asked I allow three weeks. over three months later, no response to phone calls or emails requesting an update as to when the job might be completed, that is until I threatened legal action over a measly 235.00 did Martus respond issuing a prompt refund. No explanation, no apology, All i wanted to do was honor my mother, by having the headstone completed. Guess it would've been easier to use a magic marker.

I do not recommend this funeral home at all…read more After obtaining my father's death certificate I noticed that he was listed as married. My father was not married at the time of his death. I contacted the funeral home since they were the ones handling the arrangements and ask them why they had listed my father as married. They gave me an answer to which I replied that he was not married and not in a common law relationship. They insisted that they were correct and I requested the proof that they received regarding my father and his marital status. When we went into make arrangements the staff member helping us asked my father's roommate if she was married to him or if they had any type of, relationship. The roommate specifically told them that they were not married and that they were not in a common law relationship. The staff member then proceeded to ask me and my siblings if we don't mind if she part of the proceedings since she was living with him. We gave consent that she could proceed and be a part of everything. We even allowed her to pick out the coffin that she wanted. We were quite surprised to see her name on the death certificate and started asking questions. We kept getting the runaround so we decided to contact Vital Records and a lawyer so that we could know exactly what to do and get this problem fixed. I again contacted the funeral home explaining what I have been told by a lawyer and they immediately hung up on. As of today they have refused to rectify their mistake.

Before you are pushed into a package because "it's cheaper", take the time to itemize what you…read morewant. I felt like a bought a lot of stuff I absolutely didn't want. That's my fault. I wanted a small reception but had to use their caterer. It was expensive and not tasty or inviting. I could have picked up trays at Brookshires that were better and less expensive. The worst thing was that when I arrived for the service they had some stranger's photo displayed on a big easel down front. They did refund the cost of the photo. I was told twice that someone would contact me within 3 days after service to make sure I was satisfied. It's been two weeks and I haven't heard from them. No, I would not recommend them.

From the moment after signing the contract....not ONE thing went right or smoothly. Even things…read morethat should have been easy with a little communication....the right hand did NOT ever know what the left hand was doing. I had suddenly lost my husband and doing business with Lloyd James Funeral Home was a complete disaster! Save your loved ones from disrespect by taking your business anywhere except Lloyd James Funeral Home in Tyler. Once they've got your money....forget about it!

Have had numerous family members buried here over the years and up until recently I guess…read moreeverything was okay. Then a very close family member died and we were given the runaround. They allowed this woman (who was known to my family member) to pretend that she was his wife and she placed a headstone on his grave. We have been trying for 3 years to have this gravestone removed and replaced but they refused to do so. How would you feel visiting your family's grave site and constantly seeing the devil's name (that woman) printed on his gravestone???

Please reconsider doing business with Evergreen. Unfortunately, our family has had an unpleasant…read moreexperience with them. Our beloved mother entrusted Evergreen with providing the headstone and gravesite upon her death, due to our grandmother being buried at the same site. She placed her deposit months prior to her death, and I continued payments in August after she was deceased in April of last year. I sent payments to catch up on the missed payments after she passed away, while keeping track of all payments and statements sent to and from Evergreen. Everything was going as planned until I had an uncomfortable and inappropriate telephone conversation with Marcus, who works in the office, when I spoke to him regarding our mother's account. During this conversation, it took a turn when Marcus began asking inappropriate questions about my personal life. His topic of conversation had NOTHING to do with my mother or the original conversation. I was thrown off guard by the questions and felt very uncomfortable in response to his problematic probing. The conversation did not make sense, so I re-steered it back to the original topic. After this conversation, I immediately contacted my brother and explained the situation. He contacted Mr. Bell and let him know how unprofessional he was towards me, especially someone grieving the recent loss of their mother. From this point on, I had my brother as the new point of contact, so I would not have to deal with Marcus regarding the headstone. In January of this year, my brother contacted Marcus about the final balance on the headstone because we were going to send the last payment. Marcus sent a screenshot of the final balance from his ledger on his computer and assured us it was correct. Meanwhile, the statements sent to us did not reflect the ledger balance, which my brother questioned, yet Marcus assured my brother that the ledger balance was indeed correct. I sent the large final payment, excluding the December $184.00 payment (which had not yet been reflected in the ledger as of the phone call), along with a letter detailing the final payment and a copy of the December statement showing an over-$1,000 discrepancy from the ledger balance and asking Evergreen to reconcile and update their statements. At the end of January, my brother contacted Evergreen again to see if the payment had been received. We were informed that they had not received the payment because payments go to a different off-site P.O. Box and they do not check the box daily. My brother was asked to check back in a few days. He called Evergreen about a week later, and the check had been received. Per Marcus, the payment was IN FULL, and once again, assured us that nothing further was owed on the balance. He then stated that Evergreen would begin working on our mother's headstone and that it would take at least eight weeks to complete. This was at the beginning of February. Scroll to April, received a call from a family member stating that he had just paid off a balance from Evergreen of about $200! I was shocked because we were explicitly told there was no longer a balance as of February. I had my brother contact Evergreen immediately to find out what was going on. The Blake who is in the onsite office tried to tell him that there was yet another $180 owed on the account, and that they had NOT begun the process of creating the headstone! Our family is planning a one-year anniversary trip for our mother this month, which is completely unacceptable. My brother let him know that their records were incorrect, that their business management is unprofessional and unethical with their accounts, that they never reached out to us regarding any balance owed since the conversation in February, that we were NOT paying anything further, and that we expect a headstone by the time we arrive in late April. Evergreen stated that they "dropped the ball," so to speak, and would "eat the $180 and rush costs" to place the headstone order, especially after realizing we were coming to visit. Evergreen didn't think we would notice them adding money to our mother's paid-in-full account, even though I kept detailed records of every statement and payment, along with my mother's records, including written correspondence to back up each payment. So now, the headstone that should have been completed in early April is just now being worked on, after we realized it had never been started because of some "additional balance" nonsense, even though we had already paid the balance in full! How Evergreen treats grieving family members and tries to trick them into paying additional unaccounted-for money is appalling and infuriating. I am just saddened and heartbroken that our mother may not even have a headstone a year after her death. She and our family deserve better than what Evergreen offers, given their poor customer service and questionable business practices.