Forest Lawn Memorial Park — Local services in Burnaby

The staff at Forest Lawn are very professional. They treated our father with care and dignity. And they made the whole process so much easier for the rest of the family during an emotionally difficult time.

First, I would like to thank Jeannie, the pre-need advisor. Our Dad had suffered a stroke and was in a care home for the last 4 years. The care home had frequently reminded me to make arrangements for the inevitable. I made some inquiries with Jeannie over the years. However, being superstitious, I did not want to make the arrangements and tempt fate. Jeannie was never pushy with me. However, when things became imminent, I telephoned Jeannie on a weekend and she was able to arrange a pre-need package for me within hours. I believe that there was a significant 10+% savings by making this arrangement beforehand rather than waiting after death when I would have had to pay the full price. I am still not sure about the economics of arranging for pre-need years or decades before it is necessary. However, in our case, it was only about a day later. And once the financial part was finalized, it was one source of stress out of the way. We could then grieve and focus totally on how to plan and carry out the services to celebrate our father.

Finally, I would like to thank Hameed, our funeral director. He treated the family with the utmost respect, responded quickly to our requests and made sure everything went smoothly. I was impressed with his professionalism, calm manner and expertise. He was familiar with our family's culture and traditions. He coached my younger generation so that we satisfied all the ceremonies required by the older generation. The final service was very good. I think Dad is happy and at peace.

The only glitch was the video slideshow. I had provided hi-res scans of photos to Forest Lawn. They prepared and emailed three or four low-res drafts to me to review and request changes to make it perfect. However, when the slideshow was upscaled to a higher-res 4K video, there were many digital artifacts which made the faces look strange. We opted to use the last low-res version at the service. Viewed on a flatscreen from a distance, this was acceptable for the service. However, as a keepsake viewed on a computer screen up close, it was disappointing. To Hameed's well-deserved credit, after the service, he remade the slideshow video using our original high-res photos. Everybody in the family now wants a copy of the final slideshow as a memento of our Dad's life.

I hope I do not have to arrange another funeral for many decades to come. However, if you need to do so, I would recommend...

So incredibly grateful to Forest Lawn for the amazing service!! Following the passing of my grandpa, Rebecca & her team did an amazing job of helping us with the funeral preparations.

This was a first-time experience for many of my family members (including myself), and Rebecca did an incredible job of walking us through the process. She made sure we had everything we needed, and there wasn't a moment when we were left wondering, "what do we do now?".

Any time we had questions, Rebeca would respond practically right away — which helped alleviate a lot of stress as we were busy coordinating logistics with family on the other side of the world.

Most importantly, her impeccable attention to detail gave us space to grieve amidst all the busyness following my grandpa's passing, because we didn't have to worry about missing anything as we went through the funeral preparations.

We had complete peace of mind that the team at Forest Lawn would handle everything... and they went above and beyond with delivering their service! We just finished the funeral service & burial yesterday, and I can't help but feel so incredibly grateful as I reflect on my experience with Forest Lawn.

Oh behalf of my family, thank you for everything — your care is something we will forever remember when we think back to this...

The funeral experience was very good/excellent. However, the free consultation with a grief counselor is virtually useless. I thought I would try it and only had a couple of questions but the person I talked to wouldn't, or couldn't answer any of them. I got the impression that I was talking to someone in the USA because she was very precise in her language, which gave the impression that what she said were pre approved answers that had been vetted by lawyers. She was very careful to not give any actual advice, which suggests a concern about liability, which is typically US. I do not recommend this service to anyone. However, I was directed to a local person known to the Funeral Home who was excellent and has helped me. I don't want to give out names, but if you are looking for a grief counselor, ask the...