Marguerite Hollis Ceremonies

How I began

Thirty-one years teaching high-school English on the Northwest Side, and the last decade of it running the speech team. I wrote a eulogy for a colleague in 2018 and read it when her husband could not, and I have not been able to say no since.

Why families choose me

Plenty of families do not want a stranger at the front of the room. They want to do it themselves and are terrified of doing it badly, which is a completely different problem and the one I mostly solve. I interview the family, write the eulogy in your own voice rather than mine, and rehearse whoever is going to read it until they can get through it. On the day I sit in the front row with a copy, and if a son breaks down at the third paragraph I stand up and finish it and sit back down, and everybody in the room understands. When a family does want me to lead, I lead. But I say this first, because nobody else seems to tell people it is an option.

Ownership