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Terry Smith. left, and Scott Gullett open the doors of their new funeral home on Main Street in June. (By Benjamin S. Rossi / brossi@jessminejournal.com / July 11, 2012) |
Maple Grove Funeral Home & Cremation Services opened its doors June 7 at 506 N. Main St. in Nicholasville with one goal in mind — to create an inviting warmth and comfort unlike any other to families suffering loss and tasked with the burdened of burial arrangements.
“We plan to provide a peaceful ambiance for people, because this is the last memory of their loved ones they will have,” officer manager Anke Gullett said. “Between Scotty (Gullett’s) skills and Terry (Smith’s) expertise, I think we have something really special.”
The funeral home is a collaboration of Smith and Scott Gullett, who each attend to a separate area of the funeral home.
“Where my weakness lay, there are Terry’s strengths, and vice versa,” Scott Gullett said. “His strengths really lie in the direction of the funeral home and administration, while mine are more in the special care and techniques of the embalming process.”
A third-generation funeral director, Smith is a Lexington native and met Scott Gullett and Scott’s wife, Anke, almost four years ago. He was born into the funeral-director business and knows the customs and traditions of the area.
Scott Gullett is a Nicholasville native and recently returned to his birthplace after crafting his skills as an embalmer in Florida.
“He has a real talent and skill, which is very important,” Smith said. “This is the last time loved ones will see someone who has passed, and he makes them look their absolute best, which he takes a lot of pride in.”
Both men are licensed funeral directors and embalmers.
The funeral home will not send the bodies out to another service; all work will be done “hands on” by Scott Gullett.
Smith and Scott Gullett met through a family member about four years ago at a time when they were both ready to set out on their own. Once they decided to work together, the uphill battle had only just begun.
The trio looked at several sites for their new funeral home, including Wilmore, but they eventually found a home on Main Street in Nicholasville.
“We always kept trying and pursuing our dream,” Anke Gullett said. “All good things are worth waiting for, and we feel like this building was waiting for us; after four years of trying and looking, it finally happened.”
On April 20, the partners first entered their new building and began working right away.
As the office manager, Anke was the main interior designer, charged with making the funeral home “feel like an actual home.” She even touched it with a bit of her “warm and inviting” German heritage, she said.
The doors officially opened June 7, when the new funeral home got its license.
“It was a leap of faith for all of us — financially, and being able to provide a very superior level of service that the other funeral homes are just not providing anymore,” Scott Gullett said. “Providing families flexibility for their arrangements, offering follow-up care and counseling and just providing that level is not easy.”
With the current economic times and well-established funeral homes already located in Nicholasville, the proprietors of Maple Grove Funeral Home say they are very aware of the difficulties of opening a new business but confident that they will bring a sense of “comfort to an already difficult situation” that will soon make them a staple in the community.
Maple Grove Funeral Home & Cremation Services is located next to the largest cemetery in the county — excluding Camp Nelson — and they hope to commission the city to create a small passageway directly to the Maple Grove Cemetery in order to better serve their clients.
A public opening and ribbon-cutting date has not yet been set, but they said they plan on joining the chamber of commerce.
On the business end, people are already starting to inquire, and Smith said prearrangements have been made by some. The partners also stated they will honor any prearrangements from another home, leaving things exactly the same for the same price.
“You usually don’t think of a funeral as something you shop around for,” Smith said. “But the truth is you can look around and find where you feel most comfortable.”
For more information call, 859-887-3020 or 859-296-2244, e-mail maplegrove506@windstream.net or visit facebook.com/Maple-Grove-Funeral-Home-Cremation-Services.
