San Jacinto Memorial Park and Funeral Home — Local services in Channelview

My experience with San Jacinto Cemetery was a positive one. It started with my first time visit to find relatives that were laid to rest there many years ago. A family member & I were not sure where they were located but we had an idea. It was very close to closing time on a Saturday evening. The security lady told us it was almost closing but she would allow us time to find & spend time with our family. We found them, we placed our flowers & we said our prayers. It was very kind & patient of her. I’m sure she wants to go home too but she respected our need to spend time with our loved ones. Grateful appreciated her. ♥️ A couple of days later I returned alone since I now know where my family is at. One of the headstones had a vase that was stuck & I couldn’t open it. I went to the office & inquired about it. I was met by a very kind young man. I later found out his name is Ryan Pinero. He is the office manager unbeknownst to me. He asked me questions that pertained to my issue & promptly placed a work order to get my issue resolved. I inquired about other concerns of mind such as how long can I keep the Easter decorations & he assisted with professional advice. I returned a couple of days later with another question, one of my relatives does not have a vase, she only has a headstone. I was introduced to a lovely lady by the name of Adriana Lopez who is the Family Service Advisor. She informed me that we could certainly get a vase for my relative. It is termed a “tablet”. It’s a nice piece of granite with a brass vase attached to it & that is exactly what I was looking for. She gave me a ballpark figure of a price but she would get me an exact price in a day or so. I was fine with that as I was not exactly prepared to purchase at that very moment. I mentioned to her that the vase I wanted unstuck two days prior was STILL stuck. She radioed to a young man named Salvador Garcia. Could he possibly meet us ai the Garden of Olives (which is where my family is resting), he said yes, I’m meet you there in a couple of minutes. I got in my vehicle & headed there seconds before Adriana Lopez. Salvador Garcia was already there waiting for me. Funny thing is that I had actually meet Salvador a couple of days prior as I saw him cleaning the grounds as I was visiting my family. He acknowledged me when he saw me, we had a brief polite exchange & we both went on our ways. So when we saw each other again, we both immediately realized we’d already spoken. He jumped into action & unstuck the vase. He pulled out the brass vase & since the are submerged into the ground, it was full of dirt & looked pretty bad. Without hesitation he walked away with it in hand & washed it off. He was gone to the water facet & cleaned it up beautifully. While he was cleaning it, Adriana Lopez & I chatted a bit. She was interested in my opinions for finial resting place & let her know all my & my husband’s arrangements have already been made. She was not pushy nor invasive. I am only too happy that my loved ones are in a beautiful place & the people working there are kind, professional & take pride in the work they provide. If I did not already have arrangements, I would certainly want to be this place to be my final resting place. It’s clean & beautiful. I thank God for people who answer their calling & I strongly believe this group of people answered their calling. Thank you one & all. ♥️

PS Adriana got back to me with the exact price for the tablet before I even got home. Prompt & professional. Bravo. 👏🏼

Before & after...

I first have to say the death of someone important to you is hard, and the staff at San Jacinto Funeral Home and Memorial Park "gets it", and understands every family, every circumstance and every interaction has to be treated differently and individually. Sadly enough, we were in a very similar position with a parent a little over a year ago at San Jacinto Memorial Park. Of course at that time, it was my sister's and my first experience of losing a parent, and we were so lost in the process. We did not know what to expect, what to do, what was customary and even what our roles were in the process. It was such a time of despair and grief we just floated through the process. However, looking back there were many things we would have done differently. Although there was not any clear reason for why things may have happened the way they did, we knew if we were in this position with our father, there were things we would want to pay close attention to in order to make sure they went the way we expected. Fast-forward 14 months - we unexpectedly found ourselves losing our father rather suddenly, and again so grief stricken, but a little more aware of what had not worked for us in the past. Matthew Godfrey took us right away and allowed us the opportunity to get to know our family some, listen to our challenges, "hear" our feedback and put us at ease from the beginning. He allowed us to be us and to make decisions in a timeline that worked for us. He gave us time to make decisions, to think through the process to allow for our challenges, and gave us all kinds of wanted and needed suggestions on how to make things go smoothly not just to recognize his passing, but to truly celebrate the life of our father. He had ideas we never would have thought of incorporating what he learned about us and our father through his close communication and availability to us. On the day of the service, there was not the apprehension or fear of the unknown, because Matthew made us feel so at ease and allowed us to express our grief as we needed to. And again, this became a celebration of our father's life and the impact he left in this world, not just the loss. Thank you from the depths of our hearts to you Matthew and your staff. Matthew thought of many things we would not have thought of to make our experience memorable and special in a way we will never forget. In closing there a few things I do want to recognize that made our father's funeral challenging where Matthew and his staff was able to help us through which may help others. First, our Father was a very large man, there were logistical challenges to this but he was right on top of it with solutions. Second, our father had business relationships all over the world, with the upgraded audio/visual program, they were able to deliver an experience we could share around the world. And lastly, although there were many things he and his staff did for our family - the attention to detail, the empathy for our loss, the communication and the availability were key to our experience. Based on this experience, I would shout from the rooftops the praises of Matthew Godfrey and his staff. And, although it seems so simple I would sum it up by saying,...

I am writing this with the upmost respect and truth for the person that I am writing about. She was kind, compassionate, humble and soft spoken when speaking about issues that were very hard to speak about in her profession. She took over and directed conversations in a comforting manner that would otherwise be very difficult for families to discuss at a time of grief. She was very informative and well rehearsed about the funeral service arrangements, process and necessary resources to establish our service/appointment for my wife Jennifer Anne Contreras. Marisol Gonzalez has gone far above and beyond of what I would have expected. This woman of humbleness was available at times that I know would be very hard to be available for help. She is deserving of acknowledgment, a raise or promotion for the professionalism, insight and knowledge that she portrayed during our whole funeral service and its entirety. This review does not do her justice, but we wanted to express the same love to Marisol that she showed my entire family during our loss. I hope this finds the San Jacinto funeral service home proud of Marisol and extends well beyond its four walls. Thank you Marisol Gonzalez, the Lord truly placed you in the right place and I thank him for allowing you to head up my wife’s service. Thank you.

Love and kindness, Johnny...