My 96 year old mother died over two weeks ago. 3 months prior to her death we contacted Illinois Valley to set up her desired cremation. They sent us paperwork to fill out and told us to contact Hull and Hull once my mom dies and they would take care of the cremation. After they took her body away David Grow called me to set up a time to come in and discuss. He asked me if I am an only child. When I told him that there are 5 of us but I am the only one local he said, "Well, I need their contact information." Why? "Because your mother did not indicate her desires in writing, your siblings need to sign off on your mother's cremation" This made absolutely NO sense to me! Nothing in ANY of the paperwork that we previously filled out nor from the several phone calls prior to my mothers death did ANYONE say anything about mom having to sign anything. IF they had done so, we had 3 months prior to her death in which to get mom to sign something saying her wishes to get cremated. When I asked David Grow, "what IF one of my siblings does NOT want cremation?" He said, Well, then, burial will take place!
UN-freaking-believable!!!!
SO I WRITE THIS TO ANYONE WHO WANTS A CREMATION....BE SURE TO GET YOUR LOVED ONE TO SIGN SOMETHING INDICATING THEIR DESIRE FOR CREMATION, otherwise, HULL & HULL will negate your loved ones wishes IF a child doesn't agree with it. I was, and am absolutely LIVID with HULL & HULL, and with David Grow. He said they must have the siblings to sign off on cremation so that they won't get sued, but I say they are HOPING that a child will contest the cremation so that then an embalming, burial and whatever else will take place and to do a burial across State lines is about 10 times more expensive than a simple cremation. When I went to pick up my mom's ashes, I asked David Grow that IF only Illinois Valley or Hull & Hull would let families know ahead of time to have their loved one sign something stating cremation then it would prevent much heartache as in our case. Mr. David Grow said, "we will not change anything!" WOW! Well of course you wont' because this way you hope to snag someone to "upsell" to an unwanted burial.
BUYER BEWARE!!!!