Nakamura Mortuary

Astonishing that these people are in business. Simple as that.
But, they have perfected the art of being arrogant even while acting empathetic,
so that is something outstanding, at least, even if not something to be proud of.
In particular, regarding «E», I’ve never before spoken to anyone able to
sugar-​coat her condescension in such a nauseating and thus deeply offensive way.
When, after weeks of waiting, I dared to ask about the status of the ashes, her schoolmarm-​style reply «Oh, they were already picked up by on such-​and-​such a date by so-​and-​so» hit me with the full force of self-​righteous authority and left me completely speechless. When I managed a «You are kidding, right?», there was a brief silence and, a few seconds later, «Oh, never mind, I have his ashes right here, right here»…left me at a loss for words and wondering if I had perhaps stumbled into some Twilight Zone script by mistake.
Or into some satire-​sitcom where someone was lampooning the worst a funeral home
could possibly serve up. (After all, at the outset, she had confirmed to me that I was the person designated to pick up the ashes when they were ready).
On an earlier another occasion, she stridently scolded me for failing to appear for a meeting we supposedly had agreed to have — trouble was, I was never informed of such, in fact, I had been waiting for that meeting date/​time to be set for some time. When I pointed this out, she was quickly on to the next subject, leaving me to wonder if she was, perhaps, made of teflon.
(We never met in person, so I can’t be sure, but she probably would do well in politics).
The series of inconsistencies and bald-​faced lies (they never did get the cremation date right with us) had us wonder if they were perhaps deliberately stalling on the cremation so as to run up cold storage charges on the body? (We were at a loss to explain it in any other way, sorry to say). There was little transparency, much of the information that was given was useless as to procedure/​timing, and the person designated to pick up the ashes was never notified as agreed. We had to make that phone call ourselves to find out.
When I went to perform that unhappy task, I was asked to sign some paperwork that
was (I kid you not) illegible — the print job of the forms, much of it small print to begin with, was that lousy. This all transpired in a busy hallway, there was not even a pretense of a private office environment or any such care… I’ll stop there.
I will gladly give credit where it is due — the two men who picked up my beloved friend’s body on that fateful day were exceedingly gentle, polite and respectful to the nines — totally out-​of-​character with all subsequent staff interactions. Never again!

The people over at nakamura are very professional and polite, and answered all of my questions with ease. I recommend dealing with Tony, he always does his best to accommodate.

Seemed like nice people at first, big problems following through on their promises. Told remains would be ready in 1 – 2 days, took about 3 weeks. When I called to find out if they were done, the person who answered the phone said «You mean no one called you?» Apparently they were done and sitting for nearly 3 weeks and no one called. Took 3 weeks and 3 phone calls to get the obituary from them, and then it wasn’t what we talked about. Guy who came to pick him up when he died was wearing a suit. That was just weird.
My first impression was very positive, long term impression is not again. We didn’t need more stress having them not do what they told us when they told us they would do it.

While we all hope to never need a mortuary, Nakamura was very good to us and did a great job taking care of my Aunt. Polite, professional and not overpriced or pushy with sales.