Chicago Scots/Caledonia and Wally’s Hearth Host Telling the Bees Fest

Caledonia Senior Living & Memory Care and Wally’s Hearth are pleased to announce Telling the Bees Fest: A Chicagoland Deathcare Education & Resource Festival, a community-centered gathering dedicated to opening honest, compassionate conversations about death, caregiving, planning, grief, remembrance, and what it means to care for one another through the full human experience. The festival will take place on Saturday, September 12, 2026, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at Caledonia Senior Living, located at 2800 Des Plaines Avenue in North Riverside, Illinois.

Co-hosted by Wally’s Hearth and Caledonia, Telling the Bees will bring together educators, care providers, artists, advocates, end-of-life professionals, community organizations, and neighbors for a welcoming day of learning, conversation, resources, art, and community connection. The event is designed to be accessible, non-clinical, intergenerational, and rooted in the belief that talking about mortality can help people live with more clarity, courage, and care.

The name Telling the Bees comes from an old Western European folk custom, especially rooted in Celtic and British Isles traditions, in which families would share life’s most significant news from births, marriages, and deaths with the household bees. In that spirit, the festival invites the wider community into shared conversation around mortality, memory, care, and belonging.

Festival programming will feature resource and vendor tables, educational talks, interactive legacy and ritual activities, grief and remembrance-centered art experiences, demonstrations, music, food, and opportunities for community conversation. Organizers are currently inviting participation from local and regional organizations, care providers, artists, educators, and sponsors whose work aligns with end-of-life care, aging, grief support, family caregiving, memorialization, green burial, legacy work, advance care planning, and community wellness.

Telling the Bees will be open to the public. Additional details about registration, sponsorship, vendor participation, programming, and volunteer opportunities will be announced in the coming weeks. Organizations, sponsors, vendors, artists, educators, and community members interested in participating may contact info@wallyshearth.org.