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By Carey Reeder | Managing Editor

Aaron Ellison of Ellison Memorial Funeral Home has had a busy month expanding his business and venturing into new endeavors with the career he was called to do.

Ellison was elected to the Alabama Funeral Directors Association executive board in June to be the secretary and treasurer. Ellison was nominated by AFDA president Jason Wyatt of Fayette and was elected at the annual AFDA convention.

“I had the opportunity and was approached about going into leadership with them,” Ellison said.

Ellison is entering his 20th year in funeral services and has been involved with the AFDA since he opened Ellison Memorial Funeral Home in 2010. Now, as a member of the board, Ellison will assist funeral homes and promote funeral services in the state of Alabama.

After his election at the AFDA convention, Ellison flew to Phoenix, Arizona with AFDA vice president Bill Clark and represented the state of Alabama at the National Leadership Conference through the National Funeral Directors Association. Ellison will also attend and represent Alabama at the NFDA’s International Funeral Directors Conference in September in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“Funeral service is a calling,” Ellison said. “It is definitely not for everyone, but it is about people and helping people. If you enter (the career) with any other interests besides helping people, number one you are not going to be happy, and number two you are not going to be effective in helping people during one of their most troubling portions of their life.”

Ellison is also in the midst of expansion at Ellison Memorial Funeral Home as well, as the expansion project announced in 2022 has begun. Ellison said the hopes are to be inside the new facility during the first quarter of 2024.

Ellison’s will be adding new arrangement suites for families seeking traditional burials, rooms for families seeking cremation services and new gathering areas for families throughout the funeral planning process.

Ellison’s will also have an onsite crematory as a part of the expansion plans. Ellison said the new addition will be accessible through the current building and all of the services will be tied together.

“Our crematory is going to be incorporated into our facility here, not in a facility out behind the main building,” Ellison said. “It is going to benefit us because once a family entrusts us to care for their loved one, that loved one does not have to leave our care. They will be here in our facility the whole time.”

Ellison’s also welcomed back Tim Ellison to the funeral home staff. Tim Ellison worked at Ellison Memorial Funeral Home from 2014-2017 and returns to his roots in Clanton with over 47 years of experience.

Tim Ellison, like Aaron Ellison, is a lifelong Chilton County resident and the duo enjoys being able to serve the families of the place they call home.

“I have been very fortunate to be here,” Aaron Ellison said. “I have been very blessed. Chilton County is home, the people in the community have been very good to me. I have been very blessed (by them), and I want to make sure I return that.”