Ladies & Gentlemen, The following letter, (below) was sent to me last night as an update on Solei Watson, the 9 year old child that unexpectedly died from a blood clot during surgery on December 28th.
Here's the deal. Bennie Smith Funeral Homes has been holding Solei's body ever since she passed. They refused to hold the funeral until all funds have been paid. Originally they were going to charge $8,000.00 for her funeral. We put out the word that the Family needed help and were informed, (several times) that everything had been taken care of. I didn't learn until yesterday the total amount Bennie Smith wanted to charge for the funeral, so I contacted them directly and they reduced the funeral expense down to $3,995.00. While that's better, so far we're told as of today, the Family has raised $1,300.00.
The Family was considering setting up an account at Bennie Smith Funeral Home but after I got off the phone with them yesterday they then informed the Family that IF they were to set up a fund raising account through them, they would get the first $8,000.00 and anything above and beyond would then go to the Family. UNBELIEVABLE, I know!
That being said, an account has been set up with PNC Bank and we have listed the account number for anyone kind enough to go by and make a donation. The Town of Princess Anne was kind enough to put up $100.00 and $700.00 came in from Solei's School through fundraising. Johns Hopkins put up $500.00, so the Family needs your help.
Again, even when the Town of Princess Anne contacted the local Bennie Smith Funeral Home, they too had been told twice that everything had been taken care of, it had not. If you, or anyone you know has in fact made a donation directly to the Bennie Smith Funeral Home for Solei before today, please contact us right away. alberobutzo@wmconnect.com
"Joe,
Solei Watson was diagnosed with Infantile Fibrosarcoma at the age of 18 months. Due to this diagnosis she was deemed uninsurable for life insurance. Solei went into remission for 3 years and then the cancer came back in late August of this year and had spread to her right lung and knee. On December 28, 2009 she went in to have a tumor removed from her right lung and sadly she never made it through the surgery.
The family was having a hard time coming up with the money for the funeral and after we were told everything was taken care of a family member called the funeral home and there was a mix up in communication and so nothing concerning Solei's funeral was taken care of. As of yesterday Bennie Smith funeral home had only received $500.00 towards her final expenses. We had withheld interviews from the media when we were told everything was taken care of and after realizing otherwise we are now forced to backtrack and again ask the community for help. The funeral home has agreed to hold the service but Solei just can't be buried until the bill is paid in full.
Solei Watsons mother (Yomika Dickerson) set up an account at PNC Bank in Princess Anne today.
The account number is 5558506804.
Joe the family is in absolute shock because like I stated before we were told everything was alright and taken care of but that one phone call has changed everything."
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
33 comments:
Her obituary is in today's Daily Times with her funeral at UMES.
I'm confused. Has the money been raised or not?
anonymous 9:45, with the pressure we put on them yesterday, they will hold a Funeral. Howeverf, Bennie Smith REFUSES to bury her until all of the funds are collected.
Disgraceful. And I bet they claim to be good Christians, too.
This is just horrible. Bennie Smith Funeral Home should hang their heads in shame. I challenge them to respond with a reason for being so heartless. I understand they run a business but there is no excuse for them to raise their price if they were to set up the account.
They cant work out a payment plan for the family?
I heard that she had been moved to Holloway's and the bill was paid in full. Where is all of this misinformation coming from? So sad for the family.
anonymous 10:07, No, they asked the Family to fill out financial papers yesterday to get a loan.
anonymous 10:09, Holloways did offer to take her but Bennies wanted something like $2,500.00 to transfer the body. Holloways also offered a much lower rate to do her funeral but by the time all fees were to be paid for the transfer and the lower fee, it comes to around the same price.
Benny Smiths sucks.
Please, If you foresee a problem such as this, don't wait until it's too late, and you are put in this position. This family had the past 3 years to plan for the inevitable. I keep reading "uninsurable", well, they should have put the "insurance" money into an account to avoid putting their child in this awful position. The payment plan should have been made 3 years ago.
This being said, I hope this is resolved very soon.
The Holloways must be some good people.
BackinBerlin - I am shocked at your post. That's a God awful thing to put out there. For one, this family believed their child had beat this cancer. For two, she was a CHILD! I don't care who you are, children arent' supposed to die before their parents. I agree with a lot of your posts, but stating that the family - who was all ready struggling- should have been setting aside money for a death they didn't anticipate - that's rather cold and unnecessary to state. Hind sight is always 20/20. Yes, we will all agree on the importance of life insurance, but have a heart.
As much as I HATE to give Bennie Smith a dime of my money, we will be donating for Solei. Rest assured, Bennie Smith will see NO business from anyone I know - this story is going to be out there.
Holloways buried my dad, granparents and uncles and cremated our dogs too. They always work with us within our means. They are the only local owned funeral home left in Salisbury that serves mostly white families. Bounds hasnt been the same since they sold out to the national company when Jerry Bounds moved to Florida and his son Chris became a doctor at PRMC. I've been around for years and I see the difference in how families are handled.
Thank you Holloways for working with local people.
Maybe all the family could do was afford rent/house payment, food & utilities in this bad depression.
They "lowered" the price to $3995?!! and they are STILL making a big profit!!!! What a jerk of a funeral home operation this is!!! bury the poor child's body and work something out with the family!!
God bless the Holloway's for offering their services. you are wonderful people.
While I understand that the funeral home is a business and their goal is to make money; they are a business that comes into people's lives at their darkest hour. Due to this anyone in this business should be warm, compassionate and understanding. They should do everything in their power to help the family through this process. It seems Bennie Smith's is doing just the opposite. Charging $2500 to transport her to another funeral home less than an hour away? That is like holding her remains hostage ~ upping their price by $4000 if they accept money on behalf of the family is also terrible. It doesn't cost them any more to do so.
I am sure that funeral homes see a lot of cases dealing with families with no insurance or sudden losses which they don't have the money to cover a funeral for. Because of this I can understand their reluctance to offer payment plans for which they may never be paid. It is a business and they are in it to make money and that shouldn't be held against them. That said, I have seen nice funerals for adults performed for under $5,000 why are they trying to charge $8,000 for this small child? It seems there is no compassion at all to these people and thus they should not be allowed to operate in this line of work.
I'm so sorry to hear this child's body is being held hostage by this funeral home.
Parents of children, read this and learn from it.
Buy one of those cheap life insurance plans like Gerber when your child is young. A plan on a child will cost you pennies a day but you will at least have money to bury them if God forbid something happens.
Not only do our youth think they're invincible, parents seem to think their children are too.
Listen and LEARN!
Let me first say that I am no fan of Benny Smith and personally would only deal with Holloways. Having said this, I do always try to look at the other person’s position and would like to offer some thoughts that MAY (or may not) have come into play in the Smith’s actions.
In response to ANGEREDMONKEY… the reason that the cost might be $8000 is that the family may have ordered $8000 worth of services. I know of a family who did not have the money; however, would not compromise on the items they wanted (extra limo, multiple viewings). I truly believe you can do a funeral for a lot less; however, if you start adding on services like limo, viewing on different day than burial, video tributes, flowers thru them, the burial plot thru them, etc…. you can start running up the costs.
While I don’t agree with their decision on the fund raising thru them and increasing the cost back to $8000, I offer a different perspective. If they were going to discount the funeral to half of their normal price and fund raising would be run through them, they didn’t say they would accept the reduced price. From what I read, I interpreted them to be saying that they would keep everything brought in up to the original $8000 price and then over that would be sent to the family. This kinda makes sense. While they were willing to give up their profit margin for the family, if money is going to be coming in, why should the money over his reduced price just be handed over to the family for their gain when he giving up all his profit. I read it as if the community were to donate, let’s say, $3,995 toward this funeral, then its paid for. If the community donated $8,300 toward this funeral, then $8,000 would go to Benny Smith and $300 would then be turned over to the family.
Will the Board of Mortician Licensing accept complaints involving ethics,or in this case lack of ethics? They sould know better than to exploit people who have already lost a child and have entrusted them to lay her to rest.What a shame that a minority owned business is gouging the very community that keeps them in business.Shameful!God is watching.
$2500.00 to transport this child's remains- what 30 miles? I'd like to see what Benny Smith's usually charges for transport services. They got to have some kind of fee schedule. Just because they could lose the service fees doesn't give them the right to charge more for transporting.
Well if you don't know by now, I will say it loud and clear - Do Not Ever Use Benny Smith Funeral Home.
11:22
I am sorry you feel this way. I only wanted to make a statement that people would think about. In the letter Joe received, They are asking for donations because the child was "uninsurable". To me that means they were thinking of insurance at some point, right? At this point, in my opinion, they were aware of the child's prognosis, and should have planned for the future. Her cancer was in remission, not cured. I am only saying, that, no matter how hard it is, please have a plan, it is your responsibility to your children.
BackInBerlin, WRONG! The cancer went into remission for 3 years. Besides, in this economy, how could anyone expect to save anything, especially $8,000.00!
I have to agree with Joe here. It is easy to say "save money, have a plan, just in case." But there are many people out there that can barely afford to pay their electric bills and put food on the table, let alone set aside a "future" fund. $8,000 is a lot of money to a majority of the people. You also have to realize that the family probably had to pay medical expenses as well.
It is hard to plan for a sick child. I have a close friend whose son had childhood leukemia and another close friend whose son has many special needs... you can't plan for these things. The lost work time to take them to and from hospitals, the cost of medications and copays even when you do have insurance. And on top of all this, an economy where prices are going up and jobs are going down...
ok..this MAY be a stupid question but here goes. The cost of $2500.00 to transport the body...is this what Benny Smith's would charge to transport? Why can't Holloway's transport the body for a lower fee that could be raised or for free?
And before I get jumped on, I'm just asking because I honestly don't understand this.
Cindy
So why wouldn't the family agree to Bennie Smith holding the account? If they have agreed to do the service for $4000, why is $8000 even an issue? As of this morning they had raised $1300, leaving a balance of $2700-the real number now. Has Bennie Smith been given this money yet? How much has been raised today? $3995 for a funeral in a 1200 seat venue sounds fair to me. Getting it paid for is a different matter, I guess.
I think the issue is that the funeral home is stating that if they hold the account they will take donations until they reach $8,000 not $4,000.
Personally, I believe that if they agreed to do the funeral for $4,000 that should be the price regardless. But it sounds to me like they will just keep taking donations until $8,000 is reached.
Let me clear this up one last time.
They agreed to do the funeral for $4k. However, if THEY were to host the fundraising they stated they would take the first $8k and the Family could have the rest. They're claiming they have the right to collect the additional $4k since the money is being raised by donations.
Just think about who YOU would use the next time you lose a loved one. By the way, John Holloway is the funeral director for a black funeral home elsewhere, helping the elderly woman who holds the license and he does it as a favor. So if anyone thinks they can't do such funerals they are wrong.
What a disgrace to the Pocomoke community and anywhere there is a Benny Smith funeral home!! I thought their slogan was they buried people "w/dignity"! Instead this is down right indignant!
Shame on Benny Smith! And shame on those in Pocomoke for not donating to the cause. Follow the example led by those in Salisbury who have donated to the Sarah Foxwell cause or Brooke Mulford's charities. Follow the example led by Holloway's. Charity starts at home and I don't understand why there isn't some local philanthropist who could help this family out and still get a tax write off and feel good about it. I wish I was wealthy. Why didn't someone in Pocomoke take charge other than the poor little girl's school? Thank God for those kind and caring individuals as most teachers and children are! God Bless this family!
Ya'all need to learn how to read. The funeral is $4k, but if you make Benny responsible for facilitating the fundrasing they will take anything up to 8K. So if you only raise 5K thats all they get. They did not change the price of the funeral, they are only taking what they get up to 8K. And if the family isnt looking to make a profit then they should not care as long as their child is attended to. Its not their money, it's donations.
Jantizzy
Maybe you should read. Basically whats the underlying message that BENNY SMITH sent. The charge is 4K but he will take up to the 1st
8K. He didn't say that he will give any excess donations to the family. Like the previous reader stated, the community stepped up to help Sarah and her family.The excess funding will be going to the siblings education fund. Why shouldn't any excess go to Solei's sibling rather than to a funeral director that I know is not hurting that bad. Just think of the expenses that the mother has incurred over the years for the child. Have a heart. Does everything have to have a price tag on it? Benny Smith doe darn good work but just the thought of "Trust Fund" ordeal has left a very bad taste in my mouth and it spells "profiting".
First I would like to say that it is great to see so much feedback from so many people. I am a friend of Ms Dickerson and Solei was in the same class as my son. Though he does not understand what is going on he has asked numorous questions. All I can say to him is that she is not suffering anymore and she is in a better place.
Although each of us have our own struggles, this courageous young child and her family should not be put through so much. I think any amount would help them put her to her final resting place. I may not have much to give but I plan to do my part.
Though Bennie Smith Funeral Home is a business, they should have a heart. God Bless Holloway and those who have given so far.
I have personal experience with the funeral profession in Maryland, as my father, now deceased, was a licensed funeral director. That's the license needed to embalm bodies, make pre-arrangements, and facilitate funerals.
Likely the $2,500 is a combination of fees for services already provided. If the child was embalmed, as would be required for a public viewing and funeral, there would be a charge for that. Although the embalmer (if contracted out) would likely be paid around $400 for the service, the funeral home will upcharge for it. The funeral home is probably charging a mileage fee in excess of their deductible expense of 55cents per mile, again, another upcharge.
If the funeral home has paid to have the grave opened, that runs around $1,200.00 in my experience. Most cemetaries require vaults, so that the ground doesn't sink over time. Are these expenses included in the Benny Smith bill?
In addition, most likely there are storage fees involoved, and the longer the little one remains unburied, the longer they can charge the fee. Add in the cost of death certificates and other incidentals, and the bill is easily $4,000.00, full retail.
2 more points: cremation is cheaper and in Maryland, you do not need to be embalmed (if buried within 24 hours), have a funeral, casket, or any other expense related to a funeral service. You could be buried in a cardboard box, but it has to be in a cemetary. Check it out in the Annotated Code.
That being said, what the Benny Smith funeral home is doing is a complete and utter disgrace. We, as residents, need to take note about who really cares about the community, and let our voices and wallets speak!
Anyone who has used Bennie Smith or known someone who has knows that those guys are crooks (they are probably pocketing the cash). They are rude and disrespectful to families and those that are mourning those they've lost. I do not know how they have been able to keep up the business so long. Anyone I speak to I beg to not use them because there is nothing they do that has any dignity for the dead. I have been to funerals put on by them and have been horrified at things I've seen them do. Someone else should take up the collections for the family. These people have no heart for anything but their money. And if you don't believe me, check into yourself.
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