Hollow & Hearth Home Funeral Guild

Origin story

Wren Ashby is a former hospice aide and Junie Castellanos is a former midwife, and they met at a workshop where both of them were the person asking awkward questions. They have kept vigil in about ninety homes since 2021, most of them within four miles of the lake.

Why families choose us

Illinois lets a family keep their person at home and file their own paperwork. Almost nobody knows that, and the families who do know it usually find out three days too late. We come to the house, show you how to bathe and dress and cool your person, and stay as long as you want us there. That is generally two or three days. In that time we help you file the death certificate and the transit permit yourselves, arrange the cremation or the burial ground at the end of it, and sit at your kitchen table while people come and go. We sew shrouds to order and keep plain pine and wicker caskets we can bring with us. We can also walk a family through whole-body donation, which is a different set of forms and a much shorter window than most people expect. The shrouds are sewn and the caskets kept in a workshop on Morse Avenue, which is the only address we have; all of the work itself happens in your house.

Ownership