Sunset View Cemetery & Mortuary

“Ken Nation & Darren Carter played a huge role in helping my family find peace after my grandmother, the family matriarch, passed away unexpectedly on a Monday night in the ER. That night, I called Sunset View for the first time and Darren walked me through the process of what happens to a body after dying in a hospital, and helped me coordinate an 11PM pick up of my grandmother from the ER. He was extremely responsive, patient, and compassionate, and helped me settle my grandmother at the funeral home. On Tuesday, Ken Nation called me as the funeral director assigned to my grandmother to set up a meeting to go over funeral/cremation details the next day at 2pm. On Wednesday, my family met with Ken and he was able to squeeze us in for a last minute funeral on the Friday two days later, since we needed to have the funeral ASAP. We decided to have a funeral service + cremation and the total cost with the casket we chose was about $8.3K, which was reasonable when we called around other local funeral homes to compare. During this meeting, Ken really put our minds at ease and even recommended a florist who turned out to be amazing at her job. On Friday, the funeral was hosted in a room that was comfortably furnished and well decorated. They embalmed my grandma so well; she looked as if she were sleeping. Once we were done, they allowed us to witness the first few minutes of her cremation, showing my grandpa how to press the button to open and close the door to the furnace. Overall the 1.5 hours we had for a very small funeral was perfect and the ceremony was beautiful. Thank you Ken and Darren so much for your guidance throughout the last minute funeral planning process; I'm eternally grateful. Everything came together perfectly within 5 days of my grandma passing and I know she would have loved it.”

“If I could, I would leave a zero star review; they are awful. Miss Linda McCloud was terrible to my family on November 14, 2025. We were already grieving hard and had a beautiful homegoing celebration, only to ride to the cemetery with anguish and animosity, accompanied by an unpleasant woman who treated my family members and the Colonial Chapel director like trash. She forced them, without my knowledge, to rush the burial when I had clearly communicated that we had the cash money ready to give and that we wanted to take our time. That woman told me it was OK—do you hear me? She verbally assured me it was fine as long as we were out by 4PM when they close the gates, which I mentioned repass is set for 2:30 PM. so we were already anticipating, leaving there to get to the repas-Instead, behind my back, she instructed everyone to rush, even the minister from Antioch Baptist Church in Oakland, pressuring him to hasten the service. They even made us (From her request And head back to our cars immediately) to throw our flowers in the grave as the casket was being lowered, which is unacceptable. We were all in shock and crying over our loved one, and now I feel sick thinking about it. She told my sister that if we didn’t hurry up, there would be extra charges. She is an evil, wicked, two-faced woman, just like the owner, Scott Pennington, who is equally awful. There’s no love in this cemetery at all. She was constantly blowing up the Colonial Chapel Mortuary cell phonesas well. Yes, she’s an evil witch and needs to be called out, along with the president, the board of trustees, and everyone overseeing Sunset View Mortuary. They need to know exactly how they portray themselves, and it was ugly. They claimed we needed to be out by 4 PM, saying it was OK as long as we arrived by 1:30 PM. Due to traffic on the 880 freeway, we couldn’t get there until then. That’s why I had the extra money. I don’t play when it comes to my family, and I won’t tolerate liars and two-faced, evil people. I am disgusted by how she treated the Colonial Chapel Mortuary director so harshly, with no empathy at all. Her hug was fake and phony, especially since I am the owner of the plot. She treated me differently than she treated my family members. This behavior is unacceptable, and I will report it to the California Better Business Bureau. I want a thorough investigation into how they treat people of different ethnicities because we all felt the disparity. She lied about another funeral coming, which was false; my plot was the only one open. We paid a lot of money, and I’m letting everyone know that Sunset View Mortuary is not family-friendly at all. It feels more like a corporate operation, lacking any family orientation, and all about the money. I told her I had the funds, and she said it was fine, but then she acted so cruelly. If I have the money to ensure that we’re not rushed and am willing to pay the extra, YNEFF would you push us? I would never trust you again. I won’t do business with you until the presidency and the staff's hands are changed, and they take a course on how to care for families in this last stressful stretch of their lives. You made this experience horrible, and may you continue to live your life in grief, Miss Linda McCloud. Regretfully, Angela W.”

“Great view of the bay area and golden gate bridge. Famous Chinese scholar Tsi-an Hsia（夏濟安, 1916-1965）was buried here in the northernmost zone named Acacia. If you want to find his grave, drive to the top of the Acacia zone, face the sea and look for the leftmost tree of the lawn in front of you. His grave is four or five rows directly under that tree. I drive across the country from New England to pay tribute to him, whose writing used to give me so much inspiration.”

“Beautiful. Wish I could be there living or no longer living, clean, wonderful view, incredible chapel. Grounds are comparable, what we would all love as a resting place for our loved ones and ourselves.”

“Only review current condition of the Verde Lawn, felt it moved from the 5 stars toward 3. Reason? i vision more & more lawn damaged made from excavator’s crawler track drove directly across from 1 side to the other side of the road, some even on wet days makes they digging deep in to the ground took lawn and mud away left multiple tranches damaged here there with no repair actions, it shows totally no respect to the dead. I usually 100% recommended this facility but now they not as friendly as 20 years ago when lady Rose there, today, i will reserved my recommendation of this lawn.”