Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery

Rude receptionist on the phone. Didn’t even get 30 seconds into the conversation to know this place is not where you would want your loved ones to go. Maybe you should consider being a little more polite to people…just awful.

I went to pay my respects to my loved ones, multiple family members with many generations resting here. There was hope for some calm, reflective, peaceful moments to learn about his family. This was not the case at all. This place felt like a sensory and accessibility nightmare with unlabelled sites, and very little to no navigational tools (a hard to follow paper map) to visit multiple family members. It took us two visits to see everyone. I was in tears from frustration, exhaustion and complete disorientation rather than grief, and the calm reflection did not occur at all by no fault of our own. I found this to be a very disrespectful way to treat family and friends who want to honour their deceased loved ones. In a place where people are already experiencing pain and suffering the added burden of navigating an inaccessible space is utterly unacceptable. Further when we were given the different spots in the unlabelled sites to visit we were told “yeah good luck finding all of these, they are not labelled or easy to find” and the utter disregard of that being true, and acknowledged so openly with no real effort to change, makes this even sadder. May peace be with anyone else facing this heartache.

Thank you Pam for your professionalism kindness, and compassion in providing our family with your great service. Pam went above and beyond in returning our calls and in addressing our questions and concerns.
Reliability, approachability, and respectability are all hallmarks of her service. Our family can’t speak highly enough of Pam. Her expertise, knowledge, and dedication to our family needs has earned our trust and loyalty.
We wholeheartedly recommend Pam for all your Cemetery planning arrangements.

Mauseloum was very cold inside and floors are dirty. Other than that it's a nice place

Generally happy with this cemetery but row and section markers are difficult to find. Maybe above ground markers would be more visible. Flat grave markers not trimmed enough. Grass over grown on markers. Have to clean it up every time I go

I would like thank Vanessa for her kindness at our greatest need. She took time to explain our options for our Mother's after care.

Vanessa was excellent to deal with. She let us take as much time as we needed to not only understand every step but also offered advise when it was needed. She was the perfect blend of someone who can not only offer professionalism and knowledge regarding all aspects but also show compassion and caring during the process. I would recommend her to anyone.

Many, many thanks to Joe the groundskeeper. We have been having issues with the grass/sod on family members' graves and have complained repeatedly about the matter to the cemetery office, to little or no avail. This year the grass was replaced on two graves, but then left to nature (i.e, no water) and of course, it was now hay. By chance, Joe was watering some newly laid sod in another area of the cemetery and I spoke to him about the issue with my family's graves. He promptly went and watered the grass for us. Thank you so much, Joe. Very much appreciated!

I attended a service today where the funeral servant collapsed from heat exhaustion. There was no cold water available in a cooler for the attendants and also no ventilation by fans or other means. Very disappointed. Today there's a heat advisory in effect. No provisions taken. Very restless.

I visited the funeral home today, but mistaken went to the Yonge entrance instead of the Bayview entrance. As I was walking across, one of the groundskeepers named Arthur offered to give me a ride to the other side of the grounds on his golf cart, because it was so hot out today. I really appreciate his kindness and hope he is recognized for his generosity!

Although couched in concern, it's really about upselling to grieving families.
We decided to do the cremation of my mom elsewhere and purchased an urn.
It would have been very helpful to know that the niche can only accommodate 9by 9 b9 inches. Instead, found out 5 days before the interment, the urn purchased elsewhere would not fit but they were quick to send me their urn catalogue. Seems helpful but I told the supervisor it would have been nice to know at the outset. Supervisor said that it's on the contract. The contract which was signed over 12 years ago when my dad died. Beware upselling couched in concern.

I have so many family members buried here and we go pretty often to visit them. The grounds are never kept up. They let the grass grow so high. Today we visited for Mother's Day. We were disgusted to see the grass was so tall, dandelions everywhere. Some markers/gravestones were completely covered. Why are we paying so much money for burials, upkeep and services when it's not being taken care of?

Vanessa C recently guiding our family through the process of purchasing a pre-need internment niche at Holy Cross Cemetery. She was simply a pleasure to deal with. Always courteous and professional, promptly dealing with all of the many questions we had. She made the task efficient and painless for us.

If you can avoid this place you should. I had the unfortunate experience of dealing with them twice in two years and despite the huge amount of money spent (80+ K) the service provided was overall terrible.

From family photos that were lost and / or damaged, to obituaries that were written incorrectly to flowers that were paid for but never delivered.

I am not sure who owns this place but based on my experience it seems they are a few steps away from the mob!

Stay away.

Update:

I see the response of the funeral home below, I don't believe much of what they are saying. The fact still remains that when I was having the numerous issues with the process while dealing with the sudden loss of love ones there was very little to no response. It didn't seem that the staff cared to somehow correct any of the problems I was experiencing.

On a side note two extended family members tried to send flowers 10 days in advance of the viewing and funeral and niether of the arrangements arrived. Keep in mind these were ordered directly from the funeral homes website, which you would think would be the best option, think again.

To date, two weeks later they are still battling the funeral home and florist for a refund, what a joke.

My friends father is buried here and trying to find where he's buried is a challenge because all the plaques are covered by the grass you can't even read the names on majority of them.
My aunt is in the Mausoleum and in the winter I find it colder in the Mausoleum then it is outside. Is there any heat? Other Mausoleum at other cemeteries have heat in them.

The staff have not displayed any human emotions to the grieving families and act very desperate to make sales. Only interested in selling you more plots while they have already been purchased. They will tell you plots you previously purchased cannot be used for whatever very transparent idiotic excuse they can come up with. Grounds are not maintained with dog feces all over the grounds. How much more can you disrespect the deceased. This facility has no Catholic foundation / beliefs that I am aware of and is a disgrace to the religion. Staff will become aggressive and will even prevent you from leaving even while body is at the funeral home for viewing until you agree to purchase more plots. Should this problem surface people should call in the authorities to investigate as to why you are unable to use plots you have paid for. Unfortunately I was too young to see through this at the time. Fraudulent? In addition the responses /feedback by Holy Cross cannot sound more fake. Really! If they were truly wanting to remedy any wrongs they should act at the time needed. Also we paid for a grave plaque which a year later was still not ordered and for which they would not admit to any fault even while cheque was still on file. Facility needs to be thoroughly investigated. Holy Cross do not even insult us by posting any stupid message to contact your management which you know you are only saying for public to see while you have no intention of acting or acknowledging any responsibility. I also question the The Archdiocese who should be overseeing this facility.