Heartbroken Retreat family calls out undertaker for funeral fiasco
Jonathan van der Heever, owner of JV Funerals, faces allegations of mishandling funeral arrangements for grieving families.
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A heartbroken Retreat family say their pain after losing their mother turned into chaos after the funeral director they trusted allegedly left them stranded.
A grieving daughter, who asked not to be named, said that her mom passed away on February 1 and that they intended to have the funeral during that week.
The heartbroken daughter explained: “My sister and my mom’s sister paid a monthly policy to JV funerals, and the day after my mom passed, the owner, Jonathan Van der Heever, came to our home, but he reeked of alcohol.
“He came to fetch my mom’s ID, but afterwards we didn’t hear from him, and his phone was off.
“Then on Tuesday evening, another guy came with two guys, and they had my mom’s ID and a hospital form.
“Myself, my sister, and my mom’s sister were very confused because they said that they were there because they were fetching my mom’s body, and apparently, Jonathan called this guy because he didn’t have transport, and he runs errands for him when he can’t come out.
“They said that Jonathan had given them my mom’s documents, but they told us that Jonathan wasn’t going to help us with the funeral because he doesn’t have the money.”
They said that despite being warned by the new guys, who took over the arrangements, about Van der Heever’s business dealings, they still gave him the benefit of the doubt as they are related to him.
The family paid R11 500 for the new funeral service and Van der Heever was allegedly livid when he found out.
The daughter added: “On Thursday [February 5,] he called and was upset, questioning why we paid the other guys, and we told him what they said to us, but he claimed that my mom’s body had to be at the mortuary for a month because there was a backlog on cremations.
“But it wasn’t true because my mom was cremated a week after her funeral, but we knew he just told us that because he didn’t have the money to cremate my mom.
“He just bought time for himself. He is full of stories and full of nonsense.”
They further probed him on the monthly payments made, however he could apparently not give them a valid response on what happened to the money.
This wasn’t the first time Van der Heever made headlines.
Two years ago, the Cape Argus sister publication, Daily Voice reported on a family from Ottery who experienced secondary trauma after JV Funerals allegedly failed to cremate their mom, Margaret White.
White’s daughter, Yvonne Prins, said that her mom was kept in a freezer from March until May and that they had to pay extra money for the body to be released and for another cremation to take place.
When the publication reached out to Van der Heever for a response, he said he had no comment.