After a long illness, the family’s mother passed away in the care of hospice. Her daughter had cared for her mother through every stage, they were mother, daughter, and best friend, and she arranged the cremation through the cremation provider, the company’s office near her home in Lewisville. From the first conversation through the final arrangements with the director, she made one request unmistakably clear: she needed to be present to witness the cremation and say her last goodbye, and she did not want her mother cremated until she could be there.
The family was told everything was handled. After the medical examiner signed off, the company said the cremation was scheduled, that it did not perform cremations on weekends, and that the family would be called with a date so the daughter could be there to witness it. Relying on those assurances, the family waited for the call.
The call never came in time. After days of unanswered messages, the daughter, her father, and her sister all leaving voicemails and growing alarmed, the company finally called to deliver devastating news: a “terrible mistake” had been made, and the mother had already been cremated days earlier, on a weekend, with no family present. The witnessing the daughter had insisted on and been promised never happened, and the goodbye she needed was gone for good.
The cremation provider is part of a regional cremation company with offices across the Dallas-Fort Worth area and its own crematory. The company marketed itself to this family as the simple, dignified, local choice. But the basic promise at the heart of the arrangement, that the family would be called and allowed to witness the cremation before it happened, was not kept.
The company’s own manager put the failure in writing. In a letter to the family, the manager apologized “for the mistake we made in not scheduling a witnessing prior to” the mother’s cremation, acknowledged that the service had not met the company’s standards, and said the company was reviewing its procedures so it would not happen again. The explanations the family was given afterward shifted and conflicted, and no one at the company could give the daughter a clear, consistent account of how her mother had been handled, leaving her with unanswered questions and lasting distress.
We pursued claims for negligence and for violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, including the failure to perform services in a good and workmanlike manner and the misrepresentation that the family would be able to witness the cremation as arranged. We made the company account for cremating the family’s mother before the promised witnessing, for failing to call the family as it had committed to do, and for the loss of a goodbye that no apology could give back.
A cremation provider that promises a grieving family the chance to be present and say goodbye has to keep that promise. Cremating a mother before her daughter could be there, the one thing she asked for and was assured of, is a failure that cannot be undone, and the company had to answer for it.
We pursued claims for negligence and for violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, including the failure to perform services in a good and workmanlike manner and the misrepresentation that the family would be able to witness the cremation as arranged. We made the company account for cremating the family’s mother before the promised witnessing, for failing to call the family as it had committed to do, and for the loss of a goodbye that no apology could give back.
A cremation provider that promises a grieving family the chance to be present and say goodbye has to keep that promise. Cremating a mother before her daughter could be there, the one thing she asked for and was assured of, is a failure that cannot be undone, and the company had to answer for it.
