Dear Russell,
We held the unveiling for my father yesterday, and I just wanted to convey my family’s appreciation for all of your help and for your work. Everything came out just as you described. Both the family and stones are beautiful memorials to my father, and that means a lot to us. Thank you for all of your warm, patient, detailed, and high-quality guidance during this difficult experience.

Every good wish,
Kevin

To Mr. Rosen and staff,
I just wanted to thank you and your staff for the fine job you did. It was trying times dealing with the death of my father and you made this part easier. I needed help with the Hebrew inscription, so you were able to do it for me. Your staff went to the cemetery to make sure the memorial would match the others in the family plot. The memorial was done beautifully and matches perfectly.

Sincerely,
Brian S.

Hi Russell,

Thank you for your kind, thoughtful and informative email.

As requested, I have received the Unveiling announcements and the veil which were sent by your office.

I have been in touch with the Cemetery, making arrangements and they have also confirmed that the monument has been placed.

Most of all, I would like to thank you and the staff at Shastone for their professional manner, making the process civilized and easy for the family during this difficult time.

It has been a pleasure to work with you; I will most certainly recommend Shastone to others who would be in need of your services.

Take care of yourself and your family,

Happy early New Year,

Best regards,

Lori K.

It has been a pleasure working with you at this very difficult time. You have made it so much easier for me. Please send me some business cards so I can give them to the Secretary at my Synagogue.

Thanks,

Carole

Dear Russell,

Miriam, Dan, and I wanted to thank you for doing such a beautiful job with the monument for our mom. We all visited the cemetery this weekend, and it looked just as we had envisioned and hoped. We really appreciate your time and patience, working with us to get it just right.

Our only regret was that some of the monuments nearby weren’t nearly as tasteful! (Surely the work of other outfits.) But our mom would appreciate standing out for her elegance and class, even in this context.

All our thanks again,

Nika, Miriam, and Dan

Russell,

I wanted to thank you (and everyone at Shastone) for the great job you did with my mom’s monument. We had the unveiling a few weeks ago, and someone even commented how nice the sculpted hands looked; they had seen similar, flatter hands, but the sculpted hands came out very well. The candles looked very nice, too. The entire monument was done very well; the roses across the top, the lettering, and the other details, and is what we were going for. Thanks for making the process as straightforward as possible. I appreciate your professionalism and understanding throughout.

Best regards,

JP

Hi Russell!

We had the unveiling yesterday and I wanted to tell you how pleased we are with the monument. It is absolutely beautiful–you did a fantastic job! Thank you for all your expertise and assistance in this endeavor. I truly appreciate everything you did.

Nadine

Hi Russell,

I wanted to personally thank you and your staff for the wonderful job done on my mom’s foot stone and the repair and cleaning you did on my dad’s stone. Everything looked beautiful, it made our day!

Thank you again from my entire family!

Steve L*******t

This past Sunday I had the opportunity to visit my dear aunt’s grave for the first time and see the monument. I was truly moved. You and your {staff} have done such a great job putting this project together. {So much so,} that I felt I must send you this special note of thanks.

Working “long distance” with you over the prior months has been a pleasure. You have taken care of every detail of this complex project in the most efficient and personal way. You have not only done a superb job technically, but have also managed to put my mind at ease and make me feel good about what we were doing. I know this beautiful monument will always stand as a witness to the good and decent person my aunt was.

What absolutely lovely people to work with. I live in upstate New York, and the family burial plot is in Queens. From the first minute I contacted Shastone they were very helpful. I had difficulty in finalizing my Mom’s stone since that would mean I was acknowledging that she was actually gone. Russell was very kind, and quietly helped me along the way. All my questions were answered. Someone even went to the cemetery and took pictures of my Dad’s stone and described the kind it was so that I could match the stone and colors. I cannot recommend thses people highly enough. They were a pleasure to work with during a very difficult time.

A sincere “thank you” for making the entire cemetery, monument selection and unveiling process hassle free. Your professionalism and monument craftsmanship brought a ray of sunshine to our family.

Job well done!

Dear Mr. Rosen,

I was at Mount Hebron this past Sunday to do the unveiling of the memorial for my sister. I wanted to thank you for your work. I was very pleased by the memorial and the quality of the granite and the work on it. It more than met my expectations.

With best wishes,

Rabbi M. Faierstein

Many, many thanks for your work towards making the beautiful monument and getting everything in place.

My mother was most comforted by the unveiling ceremony, and I can hardly thank you enough. Everything about the stone was exactly right.

Garrick B.

Two weeks ago we conducted the unveiling for my mother’s monument. I write this message to express our appreciation for your efforts in helping us design the monument and ensuring the accuracy of the inscription. The monument is dignified and stands as an appropriate memorial to a wonderful woman.

– Marty W

There are just some things in life that absolutely suck so much that mere words cannot convey the true utter magnitude of exactly HOW much they f#cking suck – purchasing a headstone after one’s spouse unexpectedly passes away is definitely towards the top of that list. When my husband’s sudden death thrust me in the position of planning a funeral/burial, becoming a single parent, needing to relocate, all whilst surfing the waves of emotions from others & dealing with my own horrible gumbo o’ grief, the LAST thing I wanted to do, or could do really, was select & purchase a freaking headstone. Oh & write an obit. So I waited a year… A year later I was able to write an “in memoriam” notice for the person I thought I’d spend the rest of my life with. But I didn’t know the 1st thing about buying a monument. Someone in my then-neighborhood’s on-line parent group recommended Shastone to me. I called up & spoke to Russell. Immediately I was struck by his level of compassion & accommodation. First off, he had the cemetery on file, so within minutes he had the precise size requirements of my husband’s particular section. I made it clear I was clueless, he asked a few basic questions & then started feeding me some easy-to-digest info. He directed me to their website &, upon hearing I was on my iPhone without a desktop in front of me, took out his phone so he could guide me to the pertinent images directly how they appeared on my phone (since the screen breaks there are different than on a desktop). As he introduced me to some images & ideas, I started to form some on my own & discussed them with him. He then sent me a preliminary email outlining some costs & specifics. I was very impressed but of course I wanted to shop around & make sure I made a thorough decision. Though Shastone’s prices are reasonable, this was not a cheap purchase. Perhaps the level of customer service Russell was providing is industry standard, perhaps I could get what he was offering for cheaper. I asked around & called a few other recommended companies. OMG, it was then I realized how special Shastone & Russell were – one such “highly” recommended place was so terrible over the phone – I called & they asked for the cemetery’s required measurements. Since I still really didn’t know what the damn numbers on the cemetery sheet meant (width first or height? are these inches??), I just started reading numbers slowly. The guy cut me off & said “Yeah all our granite costs between blah blah blah & blah blah blah” (actually cost more than Shastone). It was like ordering a pizza. A death pizza. I resumed my correspondence with Russell & dare I say it – he made this process as, pleasant as possible. Who knew that I would like jet black granite so much? Who knew the pleasure I would feel when I found just the right carved roses? He even guided me through the most difficult part for me, which was deciding on the images. For several personal reasons I won’t outline here, this was the trickiest part. I can’t even estimate how many emails transpired between us – me giving him ideas, him sending me photos, examples etc. Every now & then I would apologize for the back & forth, & he would always be patient & comforting. He would sometimes offer his opinion but in a way that made it clear, that was only his preference (note, he prefers symmetry while my scrapbooking style would sometimes pull me towards asymmetry!). At one point I was at a standstill, he recommended I step away for a weekend. Eventually, everything clicked into place & it was about as satisfying as something this sad could be. Note, I never had to visit the showroom. Everything was done by phone & email. Should any of you out there ever be in this position, I would highly recommend Shastone to you. FYI anytime I called & Russell was out, I was treated with the same courtesy by anyone who answered the phone. Thank you, Russell & Shastone. The stone is beautiful & perfect. A fitting tribute to my amazing, beloved husband.

My mother selected Shastone for the monument for my father years ago. When my mom passed on, I had the responsibility to select the monument for her. I interviewed a few monument companies and the only one that responded with the knowledge Shastone confidence I needed to hear to feel comfortable was Shastone. I was making these arrangements long distance, thousands of miles away, so reliability was key.

Shastone worked with me through the selection of special granite as well as multiple revisions of the wording until it was right. The owner was articulate, proactive, and responded promptly to my phone messages. He kept me apprised of what was going on in the process via email and US Mail so I never missed anything.

Without me asking, the owner even drove out to the cemetery to make sure that that monument would conform, and he emailed me pictures from the scene because I was far away in California. I don’t think any other monument company would have done that.

It’s been 2 years since mom’s monument was erected, and I waited this long to write the review because it’s taken me 2 years since the unveiling to return to Long Island to inspect the grave-site and monument. I wanted to see if the Shastone monuments withstood the force of Hurricane Sandy as well as the crippling winter storms over the past 2 years.

I feared the worst as I approached the site a few weeks ago, but thankfully, the Shastone monuments still stood. Even the stones left on top of the monuments remained–that surprised me the most. Unfortunately, I could not say the same for the soil on mom’s grave-site–the severe weather caused a 12-inch wide sinkhole to form on the site with tunnel erosion down into the site. I reported this to the cemetery office and they immediately repaired the hole and poured additional top soil for support. Let’s hope that holds.