Borthwick Norman’s Mortuary & Crematory

While we didn’t have our loved one’s service here, we did have interaction with the staff. We unfortunately went with Ballard Family Mortuary, who also owns Norman’s Mortuary.
Long story short, we did a video on Smilebox, burnt it to DVD with limited success (spotty music, pauses, etc.,) and wanted to try it days before the funeral to make sure it would play on Ballard’s system. The unprofessional and uncaring staff at Ballard didn’t let us test it out. Instead, they referred us to Norman’s Mortuary to see Marlow who is in charge of their A/​V department.
Norman’s Mortuary has no WiFi, so we couldn’t use our MacBook. We tried to download the video on Marlow’s iMac but was unsuccessful because it’s old and slow, so, he took us to their main office to try their computers. That’s where we met Gwen, a very caring, warm, friendly, and professional staff member. She allowed us to utilize their computer to try and download the video in hopes of burning it. 3 tries were unsuccessful, pausing at 99% completeness. We thanked them and left.
Come the funeral day at Ballard, we’re now allowed to test out our DVD. Of course it doesn’t work. They have no HDMI ports, so hooking up our MacBook or even a BluRay player wasn’t possible. Two family members ended up leaving the funeral to go get our TV & BluRay player from our home because we really wanted to play the video.
In the meantime, Jackie (our freelance funeral director) phones over to Gwen at Norman’s Mortuary to let her know what’s going on. Gwen then tells Jackie that when she turned on her computer that morning, our Smilebox video was downloaded. Gwen then burns it to DVD, and drives it to us at Ballard. What an angel. Only a naturally-​caring, big-​hearted person would do that.
Thank you, Gwen, from the bottom of our hearts. You were a lifesaver while we were drowning.
Thank you, Marlow, for giving it 110% effort.
Our video played perfectly, the family saw it, and that’s all that mattered.

Not a place we all go for fun.
Inside is still in really good shape for being an older place
Space for food and refreshments in back.
Parking is limited so you may have to park faraway and walk a bit