McAvoy O’Hara & Evergreen Mortuary

Had the easiest time working with Olga in the most difficult of times. Would highly recommend them!

Olga was awesome. Very professional but also had some insights into the process that I had not considered. This was a horrible experience but made much more tolerable with this business.

We have recommended McAvoy O’Hara to many friends and family members. Have attended many services here and this is a very well maintained family business.
There was a death in our family and I had to make the arrangements. I called and made an appointment to meet with Tim Louie. He was very patient, courteous, and most polite. He listened to what we wanted and he supported us every step of the way with our arrangements. He made suggestions and educated me on the proper Chinese customs. With his knowledge and experience I felt very comfortable with all of his advice. He made this service go so smoothly I had no worries. Tim is definitely an asset to the O’Hara family.
Richard and Rita O’Hara (they are down to earth caring people) are committed to a personal and professional service. Richard O’Hara, Rita O’Hara, and Tim Louie you are very well respected and I give you 5 stars plus. If you are in search for services stop searching this is definitely the place to pick.

I can’t say enough wonderful things about this funeral home. It’s family owned and run, and you can really tell. We began looking for funeral homes about a month before my mother died in October. From start to finish, they have been nothing but professional, empathetic, and caring. I met with Olga to sign paperwork a few weeks before my mother passed. It was simple and no hassle. When she died, it was Olga who answered the phone at 2 am. We did not have a service — she was cremated, per her wishes. But, what’s amazing is all the stuff that they helped me do AFTER Mom’s death.
Examples of how Olga went above and beyond…
I wanted to take Mom’s ashes back to her homeland, in Taiwan, and Olga went above and beyond to help me obtain necessary documents for this journey. She informed me of what needed to be done, and then she actually did it! With limited time before my departure, she drove to my house in Brisbane, CA (outside the city), because I was at work all day and could not return home in time before the Embassy closed. She got the necessary documents from my house, then drove back into the city, to the Embassy, and probably waited in line forever to submit them, then picked up the documents later that week. I’m not sure how many people would go to that extent to help out a client.
There was a clerical error on my mother’s original death certificates — not McAvoy’s fault (the State’s fault), and she assisted me countless times in trying to obtain the corrected documents, calling the necessary people in Sacramento. She even came to my workplace to drop off documents for me. And, even now, 5 months after Mom’s passing, she was still helping me out with death certificates, and it’s finally resolved!
She was extremely responsive, giving me her cell phone, and texting me with updates.
I hope no one ever has to use funeral home services, but if you have to, I’d absolutely go with McAvoy O’Hara & Evergreen! They make the experience stress-​free, and really go the extra mile to help you out. 5+ stars!

Sadly, my mother died on 12÷28÷14 in San Francisco. Her death was very sudden and unexpected and, as a result, we had to scramble to get her a proper ceremony and cremation on such little notice. We thought McAvoy would be perfect. After all, it was just down the street from where my mom died and it had such great reviews on Unilocal.Wow, were we ever wrong.
The first day we visited, we we spoke to Kelly. She was great, very patient, answered all our questions and was just very kind overall.
When we came back the next day, we had a completely different experience.
First of all, there were more people there this second day and we had to wait a long time to even get a chance to talk to anyone. This time, instead of Kelly, there was a Hispanic lady working there, she was answering questions from another group in front of us. She said she would be right with us.
She finishes up with the group in front of us in about 10 minutes and then her cell phone rings. She goes to the back room to take the call and is back there for over half an hour.
My dad and I are wondering if she’s still on the phone or not, so we go back there and look for her. We find her sitting at her desk having a snack! We were furious and ask if she had forgotten about us. Yes, she says she forgot about us and apologizes.
First off, her apology sounded completely insincere, like she was just tired of doing her job and wanted to get out of there. Second, how the he! do you forget about people you said you would help after dealing with just one other group and a personal cell phone call that for all we know (since she decided to go hide in the back room to take the call) lasted just a few minutes?
After a couple of minutes of us being in shock at the laziness of this woman who went into hiding so that she wouldn’t have to do her job, Cammie comes in and asks if we need help. We told her what happened with the hispanic lady, and Cammie seems to just brush it off. Whatever, they can deal with this lazy lady how they see fit. We’ll just talk to Cammie.
We had the hardest time talking to Cammie. She is Chinese (which is perfectly fine, Kelly’s Chinese, too) but her English was not great and we couldn’t understand her and she couldn’t understand us. I would ask some questions repeatedly, wording the questions differently each time in hopes that Cammie would understand some version of the question. Nope, that didn’t work. Fine, at least it seems like she’s trying to answer our questions, unlike the other lady who just went into hiding.
We tell Cammie that we need to get my mom’s body from the SF coroner’s office as soon the coroner has the body ready and then have services for my mom within 1 or 2 days of the funeral home getting the body. We want her body cremated after the services. Cammie says no, they can’t do it so quickly because they can’t get the permit to do the cremation in that timeframe.
Why didn’t we plan ahead if we wanted that sort of timeframe for services and cremation after death, she asks us? Well, my seemingly totally healthy mother died very unexpectedly to our horror and so we didn’t have much chance to take the time to prepare is why, Cammie. She quickly apologizes and unlike the other lady, she does seem sincere.
We ask to see the available chapel rooms. She says we can view those later, after we fill in and return the initial forms they need.
We ended up finding another place to hold the funeral services and do the cremation. The other place was Jess C. Spencer Mortuary in Castro Valley, which I highly recommend (except, maybe, the location is not that great; the staff and facilities there, however, are wonderful.). This other place had no issues with our timeline, because (a) they have a crematory onsite while McAvoy uses a third party (Fernwood in Mill Valley) to do the cremation, and (b) they don’t have as many families trying to get in to hold services there like McAvoy does (McAvoy can and do hold multiple services simultaneously since they have 3 chapels (none of which we were never shown)).
Bonus to using Jess C Spencer, we saved $ 3000 for the same services AND we didn’t have to drive another 30 min to 1 hr to get to the crematory like we would’ve had to do with McAvoy, it was onsite!

Very comforting, yet efficient staff – they take care of the details from holding the service on-​site to the escorted procession to the grave site. They’re there the entire way and appreciated that they have some polyglot staff who understand different cultural customs to follow during funeral services.

The Family and I were amongst 200+ mourners gathered at McAvoy O’Hara Evergreen Mortuary to mourn the loss of a longtime friend, and for us, an honourary family member on an early San Francisco foggy Monday morning. Our getting to McAvoy O’Hara was quite easy accessible by public transport.
I was very surprised by the Spanish style architecture of this proprietorship. It resembled a private home with its own chapel. There were many services going on at the same time at this establishment when we walked in. The memorial we were attending was inside the East Chapel.
I think the turnout for our friend was more than expected by the surviving family members. It was wall-​to-​wall-​people and standing room only by the time the memorial service began.
The air ventilation or lack of it was uncomfortable, especially for The Mother. I think it was because there were more people in attendance than anticipated.
Many of the speakers had to be reminded to use the microphone and to speak up for those in the back of the chapel. There was an audio visual memorial presentation that was delayed a bit due the usual technical challenge. When the situation was resolved, the presentation brought much emotion, love, and humour in remembering our dear friend.
I think our late friend would be quite surprised as well as touched by all the love and laughter that was in the chapel for them. .. I do think they would not believe all of this was for them. I hope for our late friend’s family members, they felt the love and was comforted by the love that was there in the East Chapel gathered at McAvoy O’Hara.

Worst service ever! Paul was rude, insensitive, ambiguous and concealed the actual costs of the service and gave an additional discount after being questioned. They include funeral services you don’t need in order corner you into buying the casket from them. Too bad that in these situations you have limited options.

Before my grandmother passed, she had already directed my mom and aunt to have her funeral service held at Evergreen Mortuary. I don’t know why she had selected Evergreen in particular, but I was very impressed with the professionalism and respect that Cammie and Mr. Lee had exhibited during my family’s tough times.
Cammie assisted us during the wake and was able to help us fulfill Chinese traditions during that time. She managed to ensure the projector and music was operating at the proper time. She respectfully directed me and my family so that everything ran smoothly during the one-​hour service.
Mr. Lee assisted us with the selection of the casket, all the legal paperwork and invoicing, and worked with my family to ensure someone Chinese will direct the traditional ceremonies during the wake and funeral service. It was he who helped us on the day of the funeral. He was very understanding and patient in listening to our needs and nicely asked us for permission to continue with the processions when we were ready. He even drove the hearse and directed the burial service at the cemetery for us. That was above and beyond what I had imagined he’d do as mortuary staff.
I’m truly thankful to them for making this a stress-​free experience by taking the initiative and doing all the responsibilities respectfully, patiently, professionally.

My family had the occasion to use McAvoy O’Hara’s services this week when my dad passed away. Fortunately, my parents had the smarts to pre-​plan everything, so all that was left for us to do was finish up the paperwork and proceed to mourn my dad’s passing.
McAvoy O’Hara were so kind to us, from the first phone call I made to them just asking some questions, all the way through the funeral yesterday. They were kind, compassionate and very professional the entire time. Everyone we spoke to was patient and understanding, making things so much easier for my family as we dealt with our grief.
Thank you.

This establishment is the epitome of class, offering the utmost of service in what can only be described as an incredibly difficult time. My grandmother passed away and knowing the mortuary’s stellar reputation, we turned to them to assist us. It is a family-​run business and each and every person we came in contact with was extremely gracious, kind, and sympathetic. In particular, Dan Sr. Rita, Olga, Danny, and WIlliam stood out in terms of people with exemplary customer service skills as well as a true passion for what they do. They took excellent care of my grandma and thought of every last detail for us. They kept things professional and organized at all times. It was raining the day of the funeral which we perceived to be problematic, but due to their expertise it was barely a problem. I would highly recommend them for all funeral needs, I give them an A++++++!

I was the presider at the committal. Mc Avoy O’Hara was incredibly professional. Everything was taken care of which left me at ease to do what I needed to do. They are a family run business that really understands both the business and the needs of the family and mourners.
It was a very rainy day, which often means no burials at the cemetary. The cemetary had a very good relationship with Mc Avoy O’Hara, and so the burial went forward as scheduled, which was very much appreciated.

These guys really know what they are doing. They handled my Grandfather’s funeral arrangements phenomenally well. Paul was very helpful and worked swiftly to get things done on time. Richard was always there to help on the day-​of…

McAvoy O’Hara was exceptional in how they handled my father’s passing. They led me through the paperwork with ease, and even alerted me to the possibility of obtaining a waiver from the San Francisco Medical Examiner’s Office (they wanted to charge me $ 510 just to pick up my father’s body). I was able to get that fee waived, so McAvoy O’Hara saved me a bunch of money.
Beyond that, they were completely professional and kept me updated with respect to the status of my father’s remains and when I could pick them up. A total class act.

I have been putting this review off for a while and now I figure I should finish it on this Halloween night.
9÷18÷09
We used Evergreen Mortuary for my grandfathers wake and funeral about 12 years ago and my grandmother wanted them to take care of hers too. The wake was set for 6pm on Friday of last wk. My dad told me that we needed to get there an hr early to set up. We got there an hr and early and i paid my respects to grandma. We brought some of grandma’s favorite food and set it up along with a plate of fruit and a bottle of water. There was paper money already on the table. Ronald, the guy that was in charge of making sure our wake & funeral went good was very helpful. He confirmed with us what was going to happen and made sure we had everything we needed. We waited around for people to slowly roll in. At about 6:30pm we were finally ready to start. The see foo (monk) had arrived and I had no idea that it was going to be a Buddhist service. Traditionally during a funeral immediate family sits on the left side of the casket while friends sat to the right. I have no idea of the significance of this tho.
The monk started off chanting sutras and Ronald lit some incense. The immediate family got up starting with my mom and dad they got up took the incense and bowed three times and stuck the incense into the incense holder, they then walked around to the casket and bowed three times and returned to their seats. My Auntie and my Uncle were next and then my lil bro and I followed. We were paying our initial respects, Ronald then let more incense and let anyone else that wanted to, pay their respects. Then came more chanting and bell ringing. After about 15 min’s of this Ronald came back in and in the same order in twos we bowed three times holding a small pile of paper money. After each grps of two burned the paper money we returned to our seats. Then came more chanting, after wat seemed like another 10 mins of chanting came the blanket covering part of the service. How this works is in twos, my mom and dad go up and grab hold of the center parts of the blanket while Ronald and his assistant were at the each end. Holding the blanket they would bow three times and then place the blanket into the casket and tuck it in. Then it was Auntie and Uncles turn and lastly my brother and I put in the last blanket. We then went back to our seats while the monk chanted some more.
9÷20÷09
Day two was the funeral, we arrived shortly at about 10am to prep and have the relatives and family friends sign in. The funeral was to begin promptly at 11am; all the pallbearers had arrived and got their white gloves, and white flowers. I also got them because my dad wanted me to be the one to hold grandma’s picture and walk out first. When everyone arrived we all sat down and then Ronald lit some incense for the main family to pay respects, we went up in twos and bowed three times holding the incense and then stuck it into the holder. The rest of the attendees paid their respects and then were seated once more. Then the main family burned some more paper money. After we burned the money we sat down and then got back up as a grp to bow to grandma three last times. We then lined up on the left side of the casket and everyone else came up for the last viewing. Ronald and his assistants then proceeded to seal up the casket while we looked away. I donned my white gloves and was handed grandma’s picture. I walked in front of the casket as the pallbearers carried the casket behind me. We then got into the limo and made our way pass grandma’s house and then off to Hoy Sun Cemetery

When my aunt who had no family passed away we arranged her funeral here and they were really profession and was able to arrange the funeral in a sort time. They gave us plenty of time and did not rush us at all. They also handle the cremation process for us arrange us to have it dont in Colma. Thank you for making it easy at a time when we needed it.

Only less than 3 months after the passing of my grandmother, my beloved grandfather passed away from a short battle with esophageal cancer. And once again, I found myself at Evergreen Mortuary. But this time around, I was the one who had to initiate the funeral arrangements. Never have I ever imagined that I’d be planning a funeral at such a young age, but my parents were out of the country, so that left me to do the translating for my uncles who are less than proficient at English. But luckily, there was Mr. Lee, who spoke Cantonese and helped us with the procedures.
They are extremely professional here. Mr. Lee walked us through all the steps and the form-​filling. And he even enlightened us on a thing or two on the legal aspects of death certificates. I had no idea there were such strict laws (e.g. next of kin must sign all forms, permits are required for funeral services and cannot be undone when issued).
As with my grandmother’s service, everything ran smoothly during the night of the wake and the day of the service. Thanks again for the stress-​free experience, Evergreen Mortuary. But I do look forward to a better 2009…

I just wanted to thank Mc Avoy O’ Hara & Evergreen Mortuary for directing my grandma’s funeral in such short notice. They did a great job, holding the ceremony a day after her death and catering it to the chinese traditions. You guys did a great job, and thanks for everything and R.I.P grandma.

Cammie was my funeral director and she did a great job on my beloved mom’s funeral. She was always there to make sure things runned smoothly and realy helped me when I was in major need. My family and friends also recognized her for actually providing more assistance than others has experience. The owner is super kind and generous to me.
I thank them for their help and effort. They really made this tough time easier for me. I could see that Cammie and the owner really cared about their clients.

One of my aunts passed away after a prolonged hospital stay, so my family hired McAvoy to handle the funeral services. My relatives had hired this company before, many years ago when my grandmother on my mother’s side passed away, so we were familiar with their services.
The location’s exterior is a Spanish Mission style building. The inside (white walls and dark carpeting) looks a little outdated (it’s the oldest funeral company in SF), but the simple décor and serene ambiance serves its purpose very well. There’s ample parking in the back of the building, entrance on 9^th Avenue.
All details were handled to our satisfaction: The wake ceremony, the final viewing the morning after, funeral procession across Richmond & Sunset districts, church service at Saint Cecilia Church, and burial ceremony at Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery. The staff was very professional and proper at every step. We had no complaints. There was only a minor delay while closing the lid of the casket (crank handle mechanism needed a little elbow grease) and preparing for the funeral procession, but everything else went smoothly without any incidents or delays. We were very pleased with the services they provided.