Hoff Funeral and Cremation Service recently acquired the former Riley Funeral Homes in both Lanesboro and Chatfield, bringing their number of locations to eight. The Lanesboro and Chatfield locations will now have the same services available as all of the other Hoff locations. Changes will include the use of more technology, more personalization and updates to the facilities to include an area for the serving of lunches after a funeral.
Hoff Funeral and Cremation Service was started in 1969 when Lowell Hoff moved to Winona and purchased the Sellner Funeral Homes in St. Charles and Rollingstone. Lowell’s son Tim Hoff joined his father’s business in 1983. The Romnes Funeral Homes in St. Charles and Lewiston were purchased next. Eventually, the two funeral homes in St. Charles were combined and the Rollingstone location was closed.
In 1992, Tim’s brother Gary Hoff moved to Rushford, and, in 1995, Gary purchased the former Cook Funeral Home. In 1996 Hoff’s purchased the Burke Funeral Home in Winona.
Hoff Funeral and Cremation Service moved to its current Goodview location in 2005.
The next addition to the business was the acquisition of the Blaschke Schneider Funeral Home in La Crosse in the fall of 2021; this home still operates under the Blaschke Schneider name.
Currently, Tim Hoff and his daughter Ashley Hoff Czaplewski are the funeral directors for their locations. Ashley shared how things have changed since her grandfather Lowell and her father Tim first worked in the business. At that time families would come in after a death and simply share their church, cemetery and lunch preferences. Now there is so much more personalization available as well as decisions about cremation or regular burial. If cremated, does the family want the body available for visitation or the cremains? In the same way services have changed with some at churches, some at the funeral home and sometimes no service at all.
Ashley stressed that it is important to make the celebration of life about the individual. Some families have brought a tractor, antique vehicle or truck to park in front of the funeral home for the visitation. Some families have played favorite music of the deceased at that time. Some have joined in a toast together with the deceased’s favorite beverage in remembrance of them.
While cremation is becoming more popular, Ashley feels it’s still important for the immediate family to have the closure of a final goodbye with their loved one at some time.
In order to help families make all the decisions regarding a funeral, Hoff offers pre-planning seminars. Lisa Hawkinson is the Hoff pre planning specialist. She meets with people and gets their wishes written down ahead of time. Ashley commented, “This is important and truly helps the families at the time of a death.” A prepay plan is available.
When a family comes in to discuss their loved one’s burial, staff first asks them to tell them about the person; this helps the staff guide the family in the process.
The iPad guest registry at funerals and visitations is offered to help families with their thank yous. From the computer sign-in information, Hoff prints mailing labels to give to the family. An employee is always present to help people who have difficulty signing in.
Hoff offers some special services including a Holiday Service of Remembrance held in early December for the families of everyone who died in the past year. The service includes music, the lighting of a candle and the reading of the deceased’s name as well as words of comfort to help the families through the holidays. At the end of the service, a personalized Christmas tree ornament and a candle are given to each family.
A Valentine’s Day party is also held each year for people who experienced the loss of a spouse. Lunch, beverages, bingo and conversation give the guests support as they go through Valentine’s Day without their spouse. Ashley shared that she never sees Hoff ending that; rather, they want to increase that type of service.
A grief resource that Hoff offers is the Healing Hearts Connection, a family grief camp. Ashley’s parents, Tim and Jenny brought the camp to Minnesota. The camps are run from Saturday morning to Sunday evening; attendees are broken up into age appropriate groups. Many of Hoff’s staff have volunteered at the camp and participate in FRUNGE, the main fundraiser for the camp that consists of jumping into the cold waters of Lake Waconia in March.
Hoff also helps people in their applications for county assistance for a funeral if needed. They try to work with families to help in their selections to keep the expenses down. Ashley said the staff at Hoff are great at working with families to find what is meaningful for them.
Ashley Hoff did not originally plan to be a funeral director. She started college planning on going into nursing. Growing up, she had seen her dad missing holidays because of his work. Then one time when she was home visiting, someone had come up to her and told her how much her dad had helped her through a difficult time. Her parents were surprised when Ashley told them she had decided to follow her father and grandfather and become a funeral director. Her brother Tyler is also a funeral director and owns funeral homes in the Austin area.
Ashley is on call every other weekend so she has some weekends off to enjoy her family. While it took a little time for some people to accept a female as a funeral director, Ashley feels that females in general are well suited to compassionately deal with families going through a loss.
When asked if Hoff has any future plans to acquire more homes, Ashley said they would be focusing on the homes they now own to bring the same high level of service to all of their communities.
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