I read Germaine Blanchette’s letter pertaining to a grieving family that was charged several hundred dollars for an “obituary” that was listed in the Sun Journal (Oct. 28).

This service used to be “free.” And whoever made this change should be ashamed and immediately reimburse and apologize to the grieving family.

I don’t get it. Your paper offers freebies for material things under $250 for for sale general ads, it offers 250 words free for letters to the editor, free space in Sunspots and compassion gets slapped with a fee. Shame on you.

After having gone up from 50 to 60 cents one would think that the extra dime would cover inflation costs. In my opinion, an easy solution to help your newspaper, which seems to in dire need for more money, would be to charge a fee for pictures submitted and leave the wording a free service and show more compassion.

Joe Voisine, Lewiston

Editor’s note: The Sun Journal does not charge a fee to print the first three column inches of submitted obituaries. A fee is assessed for obituaries that are longer than the limit. An additional fee is charged if a photo is included with the obituary. There is no charge for publication of funeral notices.