Events
Telling The Bees Fest
Saturday, September 12, 2026
10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
Caledonia Senior Living & Memory Care
Donation-based admission
Co-hosted by Caledonia and Wally’s Hearth, Telling the Bees Fest will be a welcoming, community-centered gathering exploring death, dying, grief, caregiving, remembrance, and the many ways we can prepare for and care for one another.
The day will bring together education, practical resources, thoughtful conversation, art, ritual, music, and opportunities for meaningful connection. Whether you are a caregiver, a professional, someone living with loss, someone planning ahead, or simply someone curious about how we might approach mortality with greater openness and care, there will be a place for you.
The festival takes its name from the old custom of “telling the bees,” in which families shared important news with the hive. Births, marriages, departures, and deaths... recognizing that life’s great passages belong within the whole community.
RSVP Here
Evening Benefit Concert
6:30–10:30 p.m.
Robert’s Westside in Forest Park
After the festival, we will continue the day with a separate evening benefit concert!
The concert will raise funds to help Wally’s Hearth establish Illinois’ first social model hospice home: a warm, non-medical home where people nearing the end of life can receive compassionate, around-the-clock care at no cost to them or their families.
Please save September 12 and consider sharing this invitation with someone who may want to join us!
.png)
Come out for a lively night of music, laughter, and community featuring well loved John Ballantyne’s CrazyHeart and local talent Ryan Joseph Anderson. Bring your friends, enjoy a great show, and be part of an evening that promises to be as fun as it is meaningful.
Every ticket helps Wally’s Hearth move closer to opening Illinois’ first social model hospice home—a safe and loving place for neighbors in their final weeks and days of life. Let’s have an amazing night together while helping change the way our community cares for one another.
Wally's Hearth inaugural fundraising event
By Tiffany Noelle Johnson & Dr. Lydia K. Manning, PhD|
Oct 9, 2025, 6:30pm CST
98 years ago today, a sweet little boy named Wallace Arnold Johnson was born on a farm in Ashland, WI. Little did his parents (Ora and Oscar) know he would grow up to do so many incredible things, including adventuring to the southern tip of Africa to find his love and bring her back home to raise four lovely children together. In 1996, he was ready to leave his aching body and said goodbye to us all at once as we surrounded him with love.
Fast-forward to now, and in his honor Wally's Hearth has been born. One of two amazing Wallys my cofounder Lydia Manning and I have loved, my dad inspired me to be curious about everyone—warm and kind first, cautious second. He felt everyone deserved love, and that's the mindset from which we will run our nonprofit hospice home.
I believe the inaugural fundraiser on Oct 9 was a testament to that. My favorite feedback was the repeated sentiment that the room was full of amazing people, warmth, kindness, joy, and a hopeful excitement about opening an end-of-life transition home that will extend our philosophy of care to everyone who walks through our doors. Thank you to everyone who came that night and reminded us that this IS a community effort. Without volunteers, donors, our Board of Directors, friends, and family, this would go nowhere fast. Instead, we are on track to soon be serving dying individuals with the love, dignity, and attention they deserve.
THANK YOU
An eventing of Community. Compassion & Connection.
The Kelley Kitley Podcast feature
By Kelley Kitley | Jan 25, 2026
Podcast Feature: #28 “Tiffany Johnson:
Death Doula + Founder of We Too Shall Pass &
Co Founder of Wally's Hearth”
Tiffany Johnson joined The Kelley Kitley Podcast to unpack what end-of-life support actually looks like when it’s grounded in dignity, ritual, and family-centered care. She shares the mission behind We Too Shall Pass, the role of ceremony in grief, and her vision for launching Wally’s Hearth, a social-model hospice home in Illinois.
Rotary Club
By Rotary / One Club of Chicago | Jan 27, 2026, 10:30am CST
Wally's Hearth presentation for Rotary One
Join fellow Rotarians for a special Rotary/One meeting on January 27th at the ULC with our guest speaker Wally's Hearth! Wally’s Hearth is Illinois’s first social-model hospice home—created for this moment. They offer a peaceful, intimate home environment where people in their final days are cared for like beloved family and neighbors, with 24/7 support, gentle routines, and room for loved ones to be together.
Make sure to register to hear their amazing story!
Listen to the episode here
Whispers of Departure Hosted by Maristela Zell |Feb 1, 2026
Tiffany Johnson on end-of-life dignity + planning
Tiffany Johnson appeared on Whispers of Departure to share how We Too Shall Pass is reframing end-of-life care through education, practical planning, and emotionally safe support for families. The episode spotlights what a “good goodbye” can look like—when the process is values-led, not fear-led.