We Too Shall Pass

12/23/2025

Nearly 80° in my workshop days before Christmas😍…ok maybe I can tolerate the Midwest a bit longer. Haven’t had time to start weaving in here since putting the door on hinges but as soon as I’m back from training in January it’s ON!

12/10/2025

So this is something we can do together here in Oak Park. Please tuck away into your files if this sounds appealing 💞

12/02/2025

In many parts of the world, end-of-life care begins not in a hospital or clinical environment, but at a kitchen table, with comfort measures being discussed and tenderly managed.

In Uganda, hospice teams travel miles down red-dirt roads to bring pain relief and companionship into people’s homes—often supported by neighbors and faith communities who refuse to let anyone face dying alone.

In Kerala, India, the Neighborhood Network in Palliative Care trains ordinary citizens to visit people who are seriously ill, organize food and transport, and sit in the hard conversations. Doctors and nurses are important—but so are neighbors, aunties, and friends.

In the UK, many hospices are independent charities that feel more like big family homes: gardens, shared kitchens, pets, living rooms where someone might be laughing and someone else is quietly holding vigil.

In the Netherlands, small “almost-home houses” offer just a few bedrooms where volunteers and families share the daily care, while community doctors and nurses come in as needed. It’s hospice as a normal part of neighborhood life.

These are not high-tech solutions. They are human ones.

Here in the US, we have advanced medical hospice benefits and incredible clinicians. But we’ve also deeply medicalized dying. Too many people in Chicagoland still spend their final weeks in busy hospitals or institutional settings, far from the warmth and rhythms of an ordinary home. Families are exhausted. People feel “discharged” instead of held.

Wally’s Hearth exists to help change that.

We’re working to open the first social-model hospice home in Illinois—a small, home-like space where people can spend their last weeks surrounded by comfort, community, and skilled hospice teams who come to them. A place rooted in the belief that no one should have to die feeling like a burden, or like they’ve fallen through the cracks of our healthcare system.

This Giving Tuesday, I’m asking you to help us build this local expression of a global movement.

* If you’ve ever sat at a bedside and thought, “There has to be a better way,” please consider making a gift to Wally’s Hearth today. Your support helps us open our doors in Chicagoland and grow a model of care that the Midwest—and the U.S.—desperately needs*

Tax-deductible donation via check, zelle (no fees taken out) or on our website through GiveButter

Learn more about our vision: wallyshearth.org (expanded and updated version soon! All part of fundraising, hint hint)

Thank you for helping us bring more humanity, beauty, and choice to the end of life!

12/01/2025

Oh hey there!

I am historically terrible at sharing the cool stuff I get to do. I’m trying to break that habit, because what I do is unusual and varied and mostly about helping people feel a little more comfortable with the uncomfortable.

Today I was invited to present and teach about my work and passion around end-of-life care and options to a room of Loyola MSW students. A couple dozen twenty-somethings, training to become social workers, showed up ready to talk about death, grief, hospice, MAID, green burial, ritual, all of it.

They were smart, compassionate, and deeply present. They asked sharp questions, shared beautiful perspectives, and at the end we went around the room so each person could name one takeaway. The range of responses was wild and wonderful. It was clear the conversation landed.

What surprised me most was how good it felt to be part of shaping how future caregivers and professionals think about death care. One student, already working as a professional caregiver, asked if I knew of any training they could take to deepen their skills and awareness around end-of-life. That question lit me up and totally confirmed my desire to build a certification program agencies can use to bolster their teams’ comfort and skill around death.

Tomorrow is Giving Tuesday, and I’ll be sharing more about how you can support opening the doors of Wally’s Hearth, our social-model hospice home. But today was a reminder that our nonprofit vision goes far beyond a care residence. The education and outreach piece is not just needed—it’s wanted. And I really, really love teaching it.

11/28/2025

11/02/2025

With so much gratitude to my friend Marty for capturing the evening unbeknownst to me and putting together this lovely montage for us! Thank you dear friend.

10/23/2025

The last two weeks have been a beautiful blur and I’m finally ready to share in spurts. I’m humbled by the love from old friends, new friends, and the in-between. Developing and teaching ‘Own Your Finale’ at the Women Over 70, Aging Reimagined symposium on Oct 8 kicked off a streak of speaking, teaching, sharing, and connecting. Favorite feedback received: “minds were changed, perspectives broadened, and plans inspired.”

Unexpected twist: the keynote was Judy Collins (!)—witty, tender, and then “Amazing Grace.” I slid into an open seat right before she began, directly in front of her, and it felt like she sang it to me—same ache and beauty as when we played it at my dad’s funeral in 1996. Grateful for the full-circle moment, the courage in the room, and the reminder that planning for the end is really about loving the living. 📸 of the gorgeous room I taught in and my rearrangement from stadium seating to the intimacy of a circle. As I told the wise women over 70yrs, the impostor syndrome was real. Glad I could offer some guidance but more so I loved listening to their stories!

10/01/2025

I was recently reminded that hospice is not about how you die, but about how you live.
When hospice becomes part of the journey, we already know a life-limiting diagnosis is shortening a precious life. (Coming to terms with the shift from curative care to comfort care is a conversation that deserves its own space)

Wally’s Hearth exists to honor the way those precious days and weeks before transition are curated and held.

Please join me October 9 to support this vision. Already the fundraiser has brought in generous auction donations and sponsors, the most gifted musicians, and it will be adorned with magical decor from local gardens and beyond. “Tell it to the Bees” signature gin cocktail from Quincy Street distillery, Kinslahger local brews, locally made snacks to munch on. Seriously my friends, you would be hard-pressed to find a better way to spend a Thursday evening. Also, I would really love the hugs! A lot of the world feels heavy right now, but I guarantee this two hours of your life will give you joy and get us that much closer to opening doors to serve our community in a much needed way.

Our website Wallyshearth.org covers just the basics as we grow, but shares a link to purchase your ticket to the event or donate to WH. Please get your ticket in advance!
Hope to see you next week!!! xoxo

07/18/2025

Thank you Mother Nature for turning down the thermostat so I could get into my shop and start sorting willow. Also got an exciting collab going with a woodworker friend I met…stay tuned for some one of a kind furniture creations!

07/15/2025

I wish you could smell the scent… This is the first rosebush I planted, not inherited. Early morning sun set this bloom ablaze and the aroma stopped me in my tracks. Every time I smell a rose growing on the bush, I think of my dad who grew them. Nearly 30 years gone from my sight… but with me in a flash when I need him🌹

07/12/2025

If anyone in the area has been wondering what to do with precious cremated remains of loved ones, this Wednesday I’ll be going out with Inclusive Funeral Care to spread ashes in Lake Michigan. Please contact me if you would like to participate! I’ll take a photo or video for you 💞

07/12/2025

If anyone in the area has been wondering what to do with precious cremated remains of loved ones, this Wednesday I’ll be going out with Inclusive Funeral Care to spread ashes in Lake Michigan. Please contact me if you would like to participate! I’ll take a photo or video for you 💞