Working With Wallace Broadview Funeral Home Obituaries Honoring Lives And Serving The Community
I spent about three weeks navigating the Wallace Broadview Funeral Home obituary system for my grandmother, and honestly it was worse than I expected. Not because the staff was unhelpful - they were fine - but because the process of actually finding and publishing information there requires knowing where to look and what to prepare ahead of time. Most people don't realize they need certain documents before even calling, and by then the funeral is already scheduled. Wallace Broadview has a fairly standard obituary process, but they are strict about verification. You need the full legal name of the deceased, including any middle names or suffixes. They will also ask for the date and place of birth, the city where they passed away, and who the surviving family members are. I learned this the hard way when my first call got cut short because I only had the nickname my grandmother went by. They cannot publish an obituary with just "Brenda" when her legal name was "Brenda Ann." Make sure you have the death certificate information handy, or at least the hospital or hospice facility name where the passing occurred. The actual cost for a basic obituary runs about $150 to $220 depending on length. A standard two-paragraph obituary with one photo typically comes in around $185. If you want to include a longer life story, military service details, or multiple photographs, you are looking at $250 to $350. They do not charge extra for online posting on their own site, but syndication to newspapers like the Broadview Press or Legacy.com runs an additional fee. I paid roughly $45 for newspaper syndication, which was worth it because my grandfather's brother's family lives in another state and would never have seen it otherwise.
The Submission Process
You can submit obituaries through their website at wallacebroadview.com under the "Obituaries" tab, or you can call their main line directly. I called first, which took about ten minutes to explain the situation, then submitted through the website later that evening when I had all the details written down. The online form asks for the full obituary text, survival information, service details, and whether you want a guest book enabled. Guest books seem like a nice feature, but after about five days they get overwhelmed with messages. For a close-knit family, I would skip it and just let people contact the funeral home directly. They usually publish within 24 hours of submission if you call during business hours, which run Monday through Friday from 8 AM to 5 PM and Saturday from 9 AM to 12 PM. Sunday is dead. If you submit after hours through the website, expect it to go live the next business morning. I submitted at 9 PM on a Friday and it did not appear until Monday at 10 AM. That extra day matters when you are trying to get the word out quickly to extended family.
What To Write In The Obituary Itself
Most families struggle with the actual writing. Wallace Broadview provides a template, but it is pretty bare-bones and reads like a form letter. I found it better to write the obituary separately and then paste it into their system. Include the person's full name, age, city of residence, and date of passing. Mention the surviving spouse, children, grandchildren, and any predeceased family members. If the person served in the military, include the branch and years of service - Wallace Broadview tends to highlight this prominently, which I appreciate because my grandmother's father was in the Navy and that meant something to the family. Service information should include the date, time, and location of the funeral or memorial, plus any reception details. If the service is private, state that clearly rather than leaving it vague. I saw several obituaries at Wallace Broadview that said "services will be held" without giving any specifics, which frustrated people who wanted to attend. Be concrete. The same goes for charitable donations in lieu of flowers. If the family wants donations to a specific charity, name it and include a link or address. I noticed the obituaries that included a direct link to the charity's donation page got significantly more contributions than the ones that just said "in lieu of flowers."
Get the Full Details
The Photo Situation
Wallace Broadview allows one free photograph with the obituary. They accept JPG or PNG files up to 5 MB, and they will resize it if needed, but it looks better if you upload something at least 800 by 600 pixels. I used a phone photo that was only 640 by 480 and it looked pixelated on their site. Next time I would take a higher resolution picture or scan an old family photo. They do not charge for the photo itself, but if you want to include more than one image you pay $15 per additional photo, and the upload process becomes a separate approval step that can delay publication by another day. The biggest issue I encountered was the spelling of family member names. My uncle's name is spelled "Catherine" but the obituary draft had it as "Katherine" because my grandmother always pronounced it that way. Wallace Broadview will not change it once published without a formal correction request, which means going back through customer service. Double-check every name, especially grandchildren and in-laws. Another problem is the date formatting. Their system expects MM/DD/YYYY, but I typed it as DD/MM/YYYY by habit and got a validation error that I thought was a bug. It took me five minutes to realize the issue. A few people also complain that Wallace Broadview does not allow edits after the obituary goes live, but that is not entirely accurate. You can call and request changes, and they will make them, but there is a $25 editing fee and it may take up to four hours to reflect on the website. I had to edit an obituary because I listed the wrong church name, and the $25 fee was worth avoiding the embarrassment of having it wrong permanently. Just be thorough before you hit submit.
Why This Matters To The Community
Wallace Broadview has been operating in this area for over forty years, and their obituary section serves as a kind of community record. People who grew up here recognize names across generations, and it is almost eerie seeing your childhood neighbor's obituary posted next to someone you went to high school with. The function is practical, yes, but it is also deeply local in a way that national obituary services cannot match. I appreciated that the staff remembered my grandmother's name when I called back a week later to check on the guest book messages. That level of personal recognition is rare now. For anyone dealing with this process, my advice is straightforward. Have all the information ready before you start. Write the obituary yourself rather than relying on their template. Proofread every name and date twice. Upload a high-quality photograph. And do not rush the submission if you have time, because corrections are a hassle. The Wallace Broadview Funeral Home team is competent and genuinely cares about getting these right, but they are also handling multiple funerals at once, so being prepared makes the difference between a smooth process and a frustrating one.
Wallace Broadview Funeral Home Obituaries Honoring Lives And Serving The Community
The obituary service at Wallace Broadview is not the flashiest in the region, but it is reliable and the staff treats each submission with the gravity it deserves. That is probably why the community keeps coming back to them. If you are preparing an obituary for someone you love, use this as a practical guide rather than a comprehensive essay on grief. Gather your documents, write carefully, upload what you can, and let the funeral home do the rest. The obituary will remain on their website indefinitely, which means distant relatives or old friends can find it months or years later. That permanence is a small comfort when you are in the middle of losing someone.
