Okay, so it’s time to wrap up the whole rosary saga. The floral rosary from my husband’s casket that I sent away to be turned into silk flowers finally arrived on Tuesday morning, four months and one day after I’d mailed them in and three months and ten days since my check was cashed. Along with the silk flower rosary I’d also paid for a handheld rosary that I could pray. The handheld rosary was not in the package with the floral rosary so I called the company and spoke to the woman who had been helping me finally get the silk rosary delivered to my house. She expressed disappointment that I had not received the handheld rosary and told me it would be mailed that day. I didn’t make a big deal of it with her and I didn’t mention it on social media because I didn’t want to seem ungrateful for all the effort people went to helping me get the rosary from Chuck’s casket. And, if I’m being truthful, I really didn’t care if it ever arrived, it was only $5 and it wasn’t tied to Chuck in any way, but when my contact at the company told me there was no tracking number because it had not been sent out yet I was really angry and ready to go as many rounds as I would have needed to get the handheld rosary. I just cannot understand the continued lying or misinformation.

It arrived today and is actually beautiful, but I just cannot wrap my head around why this company, who I would assume regularly deals with grieving family members, continues to either outright lie or just tell people what they think they want to hear rather than offering truthful explanations and providing honest timelines. If at any point during all of this someone at the company had bothered to return my phone calls and explained they were either swamped with more work than they could handle or were having processing or shipping problems and that I would just need to be patient I would have been understanding and patient. But, leaving a grieving widow without answers and leaving her to wonder if she’ll ever see the rosary again is just wrong and I can’t abide by that. I called in either late June or early July and that person told me they would call me back to tell me where the rosary was in the process, but never did. The first person I spoke to in early August told me, yes, I see your last name on the caller id and I know your rosary went out in the shipment on Friday, August 3. The second person I spoke to that same week promised to call me back with whatever information she could come up with after telling me there was no tracking number because they send packages via UPS and then it’s just gone. I left a voicemail the afternoon of Friday, August 10 to which no one has ever replied, nor has anyone replied to the email I sent on the evening of Friday, August 10 with a link to my original blog post.

I called Monday, August 13 and finally spoke to someone helpful, but I refused to allow her to call me back so I sat on hold for a short while only to find out the rosary had just come back ((I never did ask from where) and would be mailed out that day. So why for a full week did the company allow me to believe the rosary had been mailed out and that no one knew where it was and there was no way to track it? I really don’t understand why a company who deals with grieving loved ones would offer such lousy customer service? You would think they would want to treat the grieving, who are full of raw nerves and emotion, with sensitivity and understanding. I don’t know why this company continues to operate in complete disorganization or continues to lie to the grieving, but I’m grateful to not have to ever deal with them again. If it came down to it, I would dry the flowers in the original rosary or do without rather than ever send something so meaningful and precious to this company again. I could not deal with extraordinary mental and physical stress this whole saga caused.

If you ever find yourself in the heartbreaking position of having lost and buried a loved one I strongly suggest looking for a local florist who provides this service because I do not think the grieving should have to deal with what I can only suppose is a disorganized and possibly overwhelmed with work company who refuses to take the time to call customers back or reply to email.

I’m so grateful to the family and friends with connections in the USPS and UPS and the wonderful funeral director who jumped in to help me finally get the rosary home. Their help prevented me from having an actual nervous breakdown.

I’m still not going to share the name of the company. I don’t believe they are evil or trying to scam the grieving. I honestly believe they just can’t get their stuff together. Both rosaries are here and I’m no longer an emotional and physical wreck.  Thank you to all who jumped in to help and to all who offered emotional support, you really did keep me from having an actual breakdown.