Woodlawn Funeral Home Garden of Memories — Local services in Houston

Low Budget Maintenance . If you are considering burial at Woodlawn I would like to advise you of ongoing unresolved issues. My family has been there since 1954. When it came time for burial of my Mother-in-Law, her grave was occupied. Of course the person had to be moved. My aunt was put in my Mother's grave so we had to switch plots. My Mother is not even buried in the correct direction. My sister has a picture on her husband's grave. It had been run over by lawnmowers, that is, when they decide to cut what they are trying to pass off as grass, and the cover was destroyed and the picture scratched. It had to be replaced. The ground keepers stole all my family's vases and sold them back to us. We were given permission to plant a live oak tree which they eventually killed. After hell raising, they replaced it. Not with a live oak, but a pin oak that they have whacked on so much it is a stick leaning sideways. Now to the maintenance. Little if any. Please note the Jewish section. It is pristine. That is because they have a private maintenance company. They actually had grass instead of the thatch and weeds they pass off as grass throughout the entire cemetery. We had a conversation with the new person in charge, Kathleen. We went into the office and was told to leave our phone number and we would get a call back. Wrong. For those of you that are unfamiliar with the cemetery, the management is in a separate building by the feeder road. That is were she was and was forced into talking to us. We told her the grounds are a disgrace, no grass, weeds everywhere. We were told they do not have the budget to do the maintenance other cemetery's do. They are privately owned. I told her to hire an outside company and let what they call maintenance people do the grave digging. They are never working when we go there. The son-in-law of Linda, the former person in charge, is over all maintenance. There lies the problem. The so called crew is unsupervised and he is rude and incompetent. He and all the crew need to be fired. We were told it is hard to hire people to work in a cemetery and they had sent this group to SCHOOL to learn how to care for the grounds. Were do you send someone to learn how to cut grass. So besides the terrible lack of perpetual care, there is such disrespect. The grave next to my brother had sunk in so much you could see the casket. After hell raising for a very long time they finally threw some dirt on it. So the bottom line is, DO NOT EXPECT PERPETUAL CARE. Very little budget for it, that is what...

Poor Perpetual Care

I recently lost my closest friend, who is buried here. Nine weeks after he was buried, his grave was still an unsightly lumpy mass of uneven clay soil and there was no temporary marker. The headstone next to him was half covered in his burial soil. I decided to tend to his grave myself, since they obviously weren't going to. I evened out the site, unburied the adjacent headstone and swept it clean, planted grass and placed a temporary marker. His grave certainly looked out of place being so green a few weeks later, but it was far better than unattended dirt. Today I went to check on some additional grooming I did surrounding his grave the previous weekend, to help blend it in with its surroundings better, now that his grave is so visually prominent, and found that a maintenance vehicle had repeatedly driven over his grave and one of the wheels actually sunk into his grave about 7 inches (the length of your hand), presumably getting the site 4 spaces down ready for a burial today. I was heart-sick ! All my hours of hard work carelessly destroyed by an unfeeling, unthinking individual. I left angry, sad and stunned at what I had just seen.

On my way out, I visited another friend just a 100 yards away that has been here for eight years. Last weekend his grave looked normal as usual. A good amount of grass around it, but the edging around his headstone has gotten a little wide and has left an unhealthy margin of dirt around it; a little unsightly, but nothing awful. Today I found that they had done some edging recently. It was horrible; they edged so much that it looked like they were trying to dig up his headstone. The top of the dirt is now over an inch under the lip of the bronze plaque that sits on top of the concrete base ! Whereas last weekend, the dirt was even with it. Fire the ENTIRE staff, management and all, and start over with people who actually care and respect the final resting place of the dead and the people who care about them that come to visit.

It's truly a shame what is happening here. It was once a beautiful Cemetery, but not so much anymore. There are far too many sinkholes and uneven ground areas now. There are far too many bare dirt spots where there should be grass. They have sprinklers everywhere, so the grass should be lush, but it's not. They have also resorted to using burial crypt lids as bridges over the drainage swales along the roads in several places; clever and resourceful, but disturbing and unprofessional, to...

I would just like to give a huge thank you to Art & Keith. These two gentlemen really did make sure my mom’s funeral service went perfectly. As one of my mom youngest son I was terrified & broken. But with the Director Art little check ins to make sure I was mentally okay and Keith assistance of putting all my decorations together and making sure they matched my idea . I can honestly say I'm really happy with how it all turned out. Thank you Woodlawn funeral home for making my mom’s service so beautiful.

Update : I’m changing this to 1 star. I just wanted to update and vent cause I’m just not happy with this business. First of all I understand the rules but there has to be some point where the heart comes into play and people just show humanity. As of right now my mother resides here but I really wish I didn’t follow her will and just place her somewhere else. I’m still thankful to Woodlawn for helping me with her service , but the lack of empathy they show annoys me to no end. Currently my mothers plot is empty due to her tombstone not be ready till September . Today is her birthday and I wanted to show her that we are still thinking of her so I called to get permission to place a very small solar light just to show her we love her on her special day. When I called the customer service rep already sounded annoyed but I digress. When I asked if I may place a small solar light just for a month I was told flat out no. I did my research with other funeral homes in the surrounding area and I wish I would have chosen one of them vs Woodlawn. They allowed their residents to feel loved and appreciated as to Woodlawn just not caring .in the end I will stick to their dumb rules and just let it go but I advise anyone that if you want to show your loved one that they are still loved then choose another place cause Woodlawn isn’t it.

My biggest regret is placing my mother who I loved so much...