Gateway-Forest Lawn Funeral Home and Crematory

My aunt was in Hospice before she pass. She was very meteculous person. In her final days, she had a contract written to sell her home. Orchestrated where certain belonging would go an to whom she wished them to go to. And booked her own funeral with this funeral home. Thinking it was paid in full so her grieving family could concentrate on their feelings instead of everything that comes after. Unfortunately the cost of her funeral that she was lead to believe was paid in full continued to climb after her passing, to the tune of $15k. It went up $75 A DAY because our schedule and the funeral homes schedule other funerals already booked didn't line up. Why $75 a day for weeks? A STORAGE FEE that was not previously disclosed. Family should not be charged a storage fee for their loved ones. Your room has to remain cold every day for anyone that might pass away. That price shouldn't be passed on to the grieving family. Because the cost shot up so much, we weren't able to honor her final wishes to have her transferred to the same funeral service in our home town that did my grandparents funeral. Thank the Lord the Navy came to do the service with Military Honors which was beautiful. The small amount of what looked like blood on my aunts casket that my 16 YEAR OLD pointed out to me after the service was disturbing to say the list! We will not be using this Funeral home again. DONT TAKE ADVANTAGE OF GRIEVING FAMILIES

J.D. I want to say thank you for EVERYTHING you did for my mom! You an the staff there were good to me an our family in such a sad time! My thanks just doesn't seem like enough, everyone there was just so helpful,caring,patient, an loving! Georgie Grimm Georgia

Grieving family was given someone else's floral arrangement. Very disappointed to hear their floral arrangement was lost. People make mistakes, I get that, but not to own up to your mistakes is very disturbing.

Stay away from GUERRY FUNERAL HOME in Lake City or McClennan, Florida!! My mother-in-law passed away on a Friday night, while my husband and myself were out of the country. It was a holiday weekend, so we were not able to go to the funeral home until Tuesday. It was located 5 hours drive away as we live in South Florida. My brother-in-law called Guerry Funeral Home to say my husband was coming up to see his mother, and we would take care of the financial arrangements. The funeral director takes us in the conference room and we do all the paperwork. Then he tells us with the basic cremation package, the container needed for her body is a cardboard box. I guess this is a technique to get you to spend money on something that will be incenerated anyway. Then he proceeds to take us in the room to show it to us. How unprofessional is that? But wait, it gets worse.... much worse. We go to pay with a credit card and he says they don’t take credit cards. So I leave my husband and his brother there to finish up as I go to the bank to get cash. My husband tells the director he is ready to go in the back to see her. He is told that viewing is a different package than the basic one he purchased and in order for him to say goodbye for 5 minutes, he has to buy the next package and it is an additional $1000. Yes, $1000 for 5 minutes and one person. When I get back, the director who had just called the owner says his hands are tied and he cannot help us, that the package is the package. So I say, I will just call the funeral home up the street a quarter mile. Then the director says, if you move her, you have to pay the $250 transportation fee as they picked her up from the hospital. In addition, we are to pay $70/day refrigeration costs. I walk out and take my family with me. I called Gateway-Forest Lawn Funeral Home and their funeral director is extremely professional and say they can help us. I ask what they charge for transportation if a situation like this arrises and he said $225, and he has never heard of anyone charging refrigeration fees. So I go back inside the funeral home to see if they will take the $250 to let him see her so we don’t have to move her. The director calls the owner. I get on the phone with him and he begins to SCREAM at me. It was so loud, I set the phone down and stepped back 3 steps and I could still hear him SCREAMING. We drove to Gateway-Forest Lawn Funeral Home. They took care of all the paperwork and sent their guy down to pick her up and did a slight preparation for an additional $125. She was at Gateway-Forest Lawn Funeral Home and ready to view within 30 minutes. And the amount we paid including the $250 transportation fee I refused to pay the refrigeration and $125 preparation fee was only $100 more than we had initially agreed to at Guerry because Guerry charges more for all of their services. BOTTOM LINE stay away from GUERRY FUNERAL HOME in Lake City or McClennan, Florida.

Could not ask for better service. I lost my dad and the service I received was above and beyond. JD helped me carry out my dads final wishes. They will be handling things when it's time for my mother.

Thank you so much J.D. and staff. The service was beautiful.

Beautiful and well groomed. Pop's niche is in good hands.

Very caring owners and staff. Not business as usual but actual caring.

They were so helpful in such a difficult time

My family and i was treeted very poorly