Murphy Funeral Homes — Local services in Arlington

As a funeral professional myself, I find it hard to sometimes step outside of my professional brain especially when it comes to services of my family members. While at my uncles service- pulling up the outside was gross. It wouldn't have taken more than 15 minutes to sweep the front entrance and walk ways from their mulch pouring over, and their crepe myrtle trees. Being that a following event took place outside I would think that cleaning up where people are going to be would be on some sort of radar of the manager or director. There was also tape under the railings for some reason while walking up. The guy at the front "greeting" may have been too busy socializing with the receptionist to notice. The chapel chairs are extremely small as well- though these are average chairs and this was and above average size crowd to be fair. When I had also called a few weeks back to ask if it was going to be a true memorial service- with an urn, photos, or if a casket was going to be present, I got no information but the timing of events. Either having a director call me back, say you aren't the best to speak with, or can't give out that information would have been a better response then what this receptionist said and her inflection with it. Over all the immediate family is pleased and that's what matters and my uncle's service was nice, which is why my review is 3 stars. I do wish the director and staff paid more attention to some of details, worn their name tags so you knew they weren't a guest, and answered the phone better. You don't know who's calling, who's coming, or what their...

Thirteen years ago, Murphy Funeral Home provided cremation services for my late husband. I was certain I could count on them again for giving the same quality of care for our mother’s funeral services.

When our mother passed way in early November, Murphy’s provided outstanding services. Funeral Directors Sydnee Wickstrom and Juliana Fortunato coordinated all the logistics with the local hospital, our parish church and the local cemetery. They took proper care of my mother’s body from the hospital to the funeral home, helped me plan the visitation for family and friends, and coordinated the funeral service and gravesite blessing with the church and cemetery.  They also took care of such fine details as preparing the death certificate and providing the notification to appropriate federal agency.

Staff members of the funeral home were compassionate to my family and friends, making a very difficult period a positive and meaningful event. The funeral directors were particularly sensitive to the way we wanted to honor our mother, exercising meticulous care on every detail - from the publication of her obituary to the flowers for the Visitation and funeral church service . At the onset, each task performed by Murphy’s was done on time, with precision and care, in thoughtful ways that honored our mother, respected our Catholic faith, and eased the process for our family to say our final goodbye. Special thanks to Ms. Wickstrom and Ms. Fortunato for their...

Overall the arrangements were handled very professionally. However, the person they assigned to officiate my father’s service was not good at all. She did not contact me until a few days prior to the scheduled service, so there was little time to figure out music or digital photos. She also declined to use my suggestions for what she might say at the service and said she’d put together her own talk based on questions she asked me. The questions were things like, what was his favorite vegetable? They were a bit ridiculous, but I trusted her to put together something nice. It was not good at all. She read back most of these questions and answers like a laundry list. “His favorite vegetable was corn.” It was so ridiculous it was comical, in a Larry David kind of way. Not at all the service I wanted for my father.

Also, the viewing before the service was catered, but food was in a separate room and I’m not sure people even knew it was there. But honestly, that was a minor issue compared to the debacle of my father’s service. I wonder if the people at Murphy’s vet their officiants. Our lesson was to definitely try to use someone you know to lead a service for...