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Lone Star almost dropped my grandmother...
By Alexa Bono, 07/29/21

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My grandma took her final breaths a few weeks ago on June 18th surrounded by her children, her grandchildren and her closest loved ones. Hospice had been with her 24 hours a day for a few weeks at that point and we knew the time was coming when the Lord would be calling her home. After she passed we were informed that the coroner from Lone Star Cremation would arrive and that she would then be taken to Lone Star Cremation. Unfortunately we weren't prepared emotionally, spiritually or physically for what we were about to witness. A young man from Lone Star Cremation came in and did very little to make us feel at ease. He was cold and frankly didn’t have the demeanor I expected someone of his position to have. We had just lost our matriarch, our grandma, and our mother. He seemed to rush into the room where she was and didn’t prepare us for what to expect during this departure process. Our family went into the living room to allow him the space and time to get things prepared to take her. He left the gurney and the velvet body cover in the living room and preceded to try to carry my grandma out of the room with the assistance of our very elderly hospice nurse. Lone Star Cremation sent one young man to pick up my grandma. The young man came out of the room trying to carry my grandma and he almost hit her head on the wall. He was clearly struggling to hold her up, in fact he almost dropped her. He hadn’t set the gurney to the proper height so they couldn’t get her on it. My own mother had to help lift her dead body onto the gurney and she also helped buckle her in after her feet were caught in the sheets he had tried to wrap her in. Her head was sticking out of the top and watching her being treated with such little dignity and care was heart breaking. All of this was happening as my mother, my aunt, my cousins (including my youngest cousin of 9 years old), and my husband all stand there in shock unsure of what we were witnessing. This young man was clearly ill equipped to be picking up any deceased loved ones, he needed help and could’ve used an extra hand. An extra hand that wasn’t my mothers who had just experienced such a tremendous loss. He didn’t even place the velvet body cover over her to protect her. After watching my mom buckle my grandma and help this man do his job he preceded to say a prayer that honestly came off awkward and insincere. We are a faith driven family and my grandma was a strong believer so we know heart felt prayer when we hear it and that wasn’t it. I’m honestly experiencing PTSD from that evening so I can’t even imagine what my baby cousin is going through after witnessing such an awful way to say goodbye to his grandma. You see the last memories we now have of my grandmother include the memory of watching her get taken in such a horrific manner by someone who didn’t show her the respect she deserved. Families shouldn’t see or experience what we did after losing their loved ones. Praying that no one else has to go through what we did that night. After all of this I politely emailed the owner Roy Kiser to make him aware of the events that occurred and asked for nothing other than acknowledgement. I wanted to ensure that no one else went through the trauma we experienced. Roy proceeded to reply by mansplaining the “removal process” and said families tend to be emotional during these times as if I had no idea that losing a family member would be emotional for us. He never once apologized and he only stood up for his employee. He even said his employee is one of their best…. sadly their best almost dropped my dead grandma and required my mom’s help to buckle her into a gurney. The lack of respect and dignity my grandmother experienced from Lone Star Cremation is atrocious. I write to save other families from a business who clearly doesn’t care about the people they serve. If you are in the business of death and grieving families you should have some compassion and heart. Sadly Roy and his company lack both. Our amazing hospice nurse has called us to check in since then and she shared how she had been thinking of our family for days and how uncomfortable she was with Lone Star Cremation and their approach to the home removal process. She shared she had never experienced anything like this evening before and neither had any of her co-workers. The nurse even shared Lone Star Cremation wanted to stand my grandmother up on the gurney and remove her standing up, seems like they are unsure how to do home removals. To be clear the young man who came to remove my grandmother is not at fault in this situation, it’s Lone Star Cremation and their management who set him up for failure that night.