Mountain View Funeral Home, Memorial Park and Crematory — Local services in Lakewood

I have waited a few months to write a review of Mountain View, as I did not want it to be written out of raw emotion- rather, with a more objective and discerning eye. I have worked in Long Term Care for many years now, and have recommended Mountain View to countless families- in fact I had made it my default Funeral Home. In January my mom passed away unexpectedly, and when asked what funeral home to use, I told the staff Mountain View. I was, am am still, impressed by the cleanliness of the buildings/offices, and the grounds are quite lovely. My initial experience with staff was via the telephone and I had an appointment made with a very caring and genuine new staff member. The day we met at Mountain View, the initial woman at the desk was not warm, or welcoming, which was the case each time I visited, but the other staff members I saw were each very gracious. We met in a "conference" room, and were offered beverages and snacks- an attempt to create some normalcy- very much appreciated. And the experience completing paperwork was fine. My family resorts to humor often, and we wanted it to be a time of remembrance not of sadness- and the employee understood that. The first problems I had with Mountain View were with pricing- truly I wish I hadn't just wanted to be done with he process- as I have worked with many Funeral Homes and Mountain View was much more expensive. Speaking with several others in my industry who work often with Funeral Homes, they were all surprised to see my bill and the breakdown of services. Mom was cremated, and we chose simply to use the temporary box, as we had selected our own urn. The total was over $2000 dollars. for cremation, a box, and the death certificates. Interesting, the cost of transport from the hospital to the funeral home- astronomical. I was then told that we would be notified when we could pick up mom's "cremains." 1 month later I called and asked if it was normal to wait so long, and was met with a sympathetic apology that it must have slipped through the cracks. When I went to pick up the ashes, I was told they had already been picked up- yes, they temporarily lost my mom, but did find the ashes before I left. I mentioned that I was supposed to have copies of the death certificate that I had purchased and was told they had not been printed because no Social Security number had been provided. I was very surprised, as I was of the thought that they would use the Social Security Number to verify identity prior to cremation- so my mom could have potentially been anyone. The communication from Mountain View was so very poor- and disorganized. And no one asked if they could compensate in any way- however- they were very quick to take my payment, which I paid in full. Again, for the most part, the staff were gracious- but I would not recommend Mountain...

My father passed away on August 1st 2023. He had already made the arrangements for a burial plot and casket as well as other required preparations. I know that once the medical examiner's office was finished with their job they sent my father's remains to Mountain View Funeral Home. Although my niece took care of the logistics on the family member side Mountain View Funeral Home completed their services as expected without a hitch. When we got to the funeral home today after the procession when we were all seated one of the funeral directors Kristine started asking around for the officiator of the service. Soon we found out that we had no one to conduct the service because that named person was not amongst us. At that point another funeral director Richard stepped up. Without hesitation he promptly looked up appropriate scripture to read to us. He directed us in prayer. He encouraged each attendant to say something about the deceased. Richard basically ran the service from beginning to end. I'm writing this review to share my admiration and appreciation for the way that Mountain View Funeral Home stepped up without notice to help our family out with our final goodbyes to my father. They did go above and beyond the call of their regular duty. We laughed we cried and do not feel in the least bit that we missed out because of the named officiator being absent. Thank you so much for making this day go off without a hitch. I believe you could have walked away and left us to fend for ourselves but you did the opposite. That shows compassion and empathy. An intangible necessity that I perceive as quite rare these days. ❤️😇❤️🙏❤️ Thank you. Sincerely, Duane F Novotney's kin...

My husband passed away after weeks in the hospital and I was reeling. When the nurse asked me, "What funeral home should I call?," I didn't even know where to start. I remembered attending a couple of nice services at Mountain View for a friends' family years earlier so I gave them a call. The person who answered was genuinely kind, supportive and helpful in walking me through the next steps. In my arrangement conference a few days later the care team I met with did a terrific job of not only laying out the options available for celebrating my husband's life and arranging his final resting place, but making me feel heard and cared for in a surprisingly pressure-free environment. The service and reception couldn't have turned out better--the facility and professionalism of the entire staff was top-notch. A perfect example of this was Tristan, from their AV team, who produced a beautiful tribute slide show of my husband's life. He took the time to read the obit and added a couple of very personalized touches to the slide show based on my husband's interests. He designed our memorial program folders too, and when he saw I was emotionally and literally struggling to shorten the obituary to fit the layout, he added an insert that would accommodate the entire thing at no added cost. When I tried to apologize for being a bother, he wouldn't hear of it and told me how important it was that the program be exactly as my family needed it to be. If you are looking for a funeral home that treats loved ones who have passed and their families with compassion, respect, and true empathy, look no further. Make the call to Mountain View. I'm truly...