Baucom's Precious Memories Svcs

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 7, 2015/09/18) */
Dear Missouri State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors,
In reference to the complaint filed with The Missouri State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors & the Revdex.com, against [redacted] O. [redacted] (Funeral Director),...

Precious Memories Services, LLC. dba [redacted]'s Precious Memories Services by [redacted] & [redacted] on August 17, 2015, I would like to respond with the following. This matter was a very personal & confidential verbal arrangement between [redacted] - DOD: July 19, 2013 my wife [redacted] and myself as her friend, employer, & church affiliation. Our business & personal relationship goes back as far as 2010. [redacted] was very involved with helping my wife & I set up our new business [redacted]'s Precious Memories Services, LLC. in 2011, her skills in the area of computer, administrative, and finances was a level of excellence & professionalism, Upon [redacted]'s diagnose of cancer she was very active in our business, she later took on a job with [redacted] to make more money and to get the medical & life insurance that was needed to take care of her & her son's health issues. During the course of things we had a very close relationship with a mutual couple from our church [redacted] & [redacted], [redacted] & her son [redacted] actually lived with [redacted] & [redacted] along with their children, during this time they all lived together to help [redacted] & her son, because they had nowhere to live because of no income. [redacted] expressed she did not want to live with her mother or sister doing those times. [redacted] took very ill with several major medical issues, in & out the hospital for almost two years, while Elaine kept on working during those days of [redacted] sickness, [redacted] stayed there at the home to help [redacted] with his medical issues, such as cooking, feeding him, & making sure he gets medication, they had many conversations about death and going on to be with the Lord which [redacted] shared with my wife & I, [redacted] shared a lot of personal family issues about her mother, sister, father, & son with us , I will not go into details. [redacted] elected to move from the [redacted]'s because of some personal issues, she did allow her son [redacted] to remain there for a while. Between the three families we had a spiritual & family bond connection.
[redacted] passed ** January 21, 2012 we called him "[redacted]" He was like a brother to [redacted] & myself. Our firm handled all the funeral arrangements for [redacted] from the casket , services, to selecting the cemetery at [redacted] Memorial Park, the family allowed me to choose the grave & sign the interment order, because of my relationship, knowledge & professionalism. As time went on [redacted]'s conditions got very sickly & gravely, she begin to get very weak, she expressed to my wife [redacted] that she did not want to live with her mother or sister, for various reasons that I will not go into details, She got a chance to work for [redacted] right up to one year, this allowed her to get the medical & life insurance coverage that was needed to cover expenses both medical & funeral. During those last days of her life, [redacted] stayed with us in our lower-level she stated so many times that she felt so peaceful being in our home, my wife would feed her & make sure she got her medications this went on for a few weeks her son [redacted] would come over at times & spend nights to stay with his mother, prior during that time she was able to get her own apartment for her and [redacted], before she got sick, after getting very sick that's when she begin to be with us back and forth at our home. [redacted] had express & shared some very important personal issues concerning her family about her son, mother , & sister, she verbally express certain things with my wife & I mainly how she wanted things to go, once she go to be with the Lord, unfortunately none of those things was legally put in writing. [redacted] & I talked on many occasions as to how she wanted her "Celebration of Life Service", whether she had the life insurance or not to cover things, at this point my wife & I just wanted to carry out [redacted]'s finial wishes.
On July 19, 2013 [redacted] passed away at her apartment with her son, mother & sister present, there was some hesitation from her mother & sister as to whether they wanted us to pick up the body or make the funeral arrangements , they had another funeral home of choice , from what [redacted] stated she didn't have much of a relationship with her mother or sister, only in her last weeks & few days of life they started coming around her , [redacted] stated to us that she was leaving her mother 10% of her life insurance if it pays, because she wanted to do something for her mother, [redacted] also stated to us she wanted us to look after [redacted] her son, [redacted] thought at some time my daughter & [redacted] would marry and have a life together, by this time [redacted] made up his mind as to what he was going to do with his life, so we didn't want any conflict between him and his grandmother or aunt. [redacted] being of adult age & sound mind, followed his mother's wishes called for me to pick up his mother to take care of her finial wishes for funeral arrangements, On May 3, 2013 [redacted] & I set up a finial wishes plan through [redacted] Life Insurance Co. which our company paid the premiums of $120.00 monthly for $15,000 of coverage of course [redacted] didn't live to make the amount of time needed to have the full coverage, she & I being her friend, employer & funeral director set down and made all finial choices that she wanted for her "Celebration Of Life Services". We started this arrangement with [redacted] just in case she didn't make the requirement time needed to have coverage from [redacted]. There was no need to sit down with [redacted]'s family or son to make finial arrangements, because we had made pre-selections to what she wanted with our goods & services, I promised her that I would see to that being carried out for her. On May 3, 2013 there was a pre-selection funeral statement prepared with the goods & services she selected, [redacted] and I also talked about her burial (grave), we both mention how nice it would be that when that time came if it would be a grave near [redacted], because of our close relationships. On July 26, 2013 I meet with [redacted] in my office to sign all documents needed to carry out the financial obligation, [redacted]'s grandmother [redacted] & aunt [redacted] did meet him at my office on that day. Though [redacted] (son) was the legal next of kin that signed the funeral statement, assignment claim forms, etc. He allowed me because of the relationship our family had with him & his mother to carry out the wishes of [redacted], his mother. [redacted] was very, very close to his mother and loved her so much this was a hard time for him, the only people we knew that was really concern about [redacted]'s well-being was the [redacted] Family & the church family that was connected to him, the grandmother & aunt came later involved after [redacted]'s sickness gotten to be unto death, our understanding as time went on they didn't allow [redacted] & [redacted] to live with them for whatever reasons, when they had no other place to live. [redacted] also stated and expressed to us she didn't want to go live with them anyway, because of some personal issues with her mother & sister.
[redacted] allowed me to carry out the wishes of his mother from the beginning of things to the final burial, during the time of selecting a grave I was able to arrange & get a grave in [redacted] Memorial Park Cemetery, where our friend [redacted] was buried, we got a grave located at the head of [redacted], so the graves are located head to head, which I signed the interment order for the graves of [redacted] & [redacted], both of these families allowed me to do so, because of our relationship. On the funeral statement was $1,900.00 allowed for a headstone, which does not include foundation or set-up charges for [redacted]'s grave. Because of the cemetery time allotment to set headstones, also they don't set stones during the winter months I took upon myself to wait to select a monument company & headstone, for reasons I just was not ready to handle that process for [redacted], plus the unsure issues with life insurance from where [redacted] had worked, because of her health issues & time on that job. The insurance co. finally paid through the funding company that we use, once those funds paid out we held the funds for the headstone until I decided to move forward, I originally had something set up through the [redacted] Monument Co. ([redacted]) for a selected stone for [redacted]'s grave at that time that company was going through some finical issues and would not accept any deposits at that time [redacted] told me to want a few weeks come back in with a deposit , but I later learned they went out of business. No family member, not even [redacted] was involved with this process of the selecting cemetery or headstone. After the issues with the first monument company I found out that [redacted] does monument & headstones, I had spoken with Ms. Alicia Walker from the cemetery, on several occasion about ordering headstones for both [redacted] & [redacted] we discussed a few options keep in mind the headstone, foundation, set-up charges are all separate charges, we had $1,900 allocated for [redacted]'s stone. In pricing several stones $1,900.00 didn't go too far for a nice size stone that included the foundation & set-up charges. Again speaking with Ms. Walker from the cemetery she suggested to me since we are very close friends & family, and [redacted] & [redacted] are buried head to head why don't I purchase a two sided headstone, the cemetery has done it before with several burials, that was the first time I heard this can be done I thought this would be so great for [redacted] & [redacted], one stone with information about each of them on each side, since I had the verbal authorization to take care of things this is what I decided to do I did speak to [redacted] about it his reply "don't matter to me I'm not ever going to the cemetery anyway". I paid more than $1,900.00 for the two sided stone plus foundation charges , this stone was made and ready to set, but because of the complaint filed from [redacted] (mother) & [redacted] (sister) who had nothing to do with any arrangements, I was only caring out the wishes of [redacted], and what her son [redacted] would have wanted. Prior to this complaint being filed on September 2, 2015 I arranged & paid for another headstone to be made only for [redacted] as a single stone, we paid a total of $2,432.00 for the new monument with a base & the foundation fee, this installation should be done by Friday, September 25, 2015 which is more than what the original funeral statement was for the monument. We do not feel we have done anything wrong in honoring any request that was made by [redacted] or her son [redacted] during such time.
Sincerely,
[redacted] O. [redacted]
Funeral Director