The View AGAIN From A Hearse

Hello, this is Matt Slick from the Matt Slick Live Podcast, where I defend the Christian faith and lay out our foundations of the truth of God's Word. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network.

This is the Truth Network. So tell me, who is the favorite speaker you've ever heard speak of all time? You hear this guy or gal, you walk out like, wow, I didn't pay enough to hear that inspiring message.

Well, guess what? We got that person on the phone on the line right now on the show on Truth Talk. I'm Stu Epperson, and this guy not only speaks all over the country, a hundred times a year in some cases, he also has written some books, tremendous books. He also has some fascinating stories, and I'll tell you the name of this book will tell you a lot, View from a Hearse. And anyone that can bring humor into situations around funerals and dying and bereavement is someone that's got high marks in my book, and the more I read this man's books, the more I've talked to him.

I've got to know his son through social media. I've just been so encouraged and I tell you, long overdue having this guy on the radio show. Bruce Goddard, welcome to Truth Talk, sir. Thank you for having me. I'm glad to be here. I'm glad to be anywhere, my friends. Thank you for having me. Well, it's just really good to have you, and it's so funny. This is a complete social media encounter, how we met, because your son is like a social media guru, Luke Goddard. He's hilarious. And I met him, a friend, a good friend of my daughter's, who pointed me to the page, and we got connected, and I tell you what, the more I watch him, the more I learn where he got it from. I learned that the tree doesn't fall far from the acorn.

How does that go? He is way past from anything I've ever done. I can tell you, he's in his own world. Well, you guys, but the neat thing, the underlying thing I see, there's a theme in the message, in the legacy of the Goddard family, and that is pointing people to God, but doing it through all kinds of different ways, through stories, through relationships.

And it all started in Reynolds, Georgia. Now the two books in front of me, the first one's called A View from a Hearse. That's your first book, and there you are standing in front of a hearse with the Goddard funeral home name on this well-shined, dapper hearse. You're in a suit, and the subtitle of the book is Lighten Up, and then your sequel, I guess you'd say it, is called The Legacy of Ulan Brown, which is really a fascinating story. I have both books in my hand, both are personally autographed by the author, and I'm talking to the author right now.

So start out by telling us, who is Bruce Goddard? Boy, that's an interesting question. I was born at the right time, at the right place, by the right parents, and it's simply by the grace of God. I had nothing to do with it, I didn't choose my parents, I didn't choose where I grew up, I really almost didn't choose my profession.

God did it, and he extended his grace to me, and I've had a wonderful run. I'm almost 66 years old, so I've been around a bush at the time or two, but I've had a wonderful situation. I've been in the funeral business, I'm a fourth generation funeral director, and I see life a little bit differently than most people. Most people deal with death when they're impacted by it.

I get to deal with death every day of my life, even now, in a bigger way, as I run funeral homes across the country. But growing up in this little small town, I began to realize that I see life in a different way because it is short, and we really do need to lighten up, and we take ourselves way too seriously. So anyway, who I am, I'm a regular guy, I'm an undertaker from Reynolds, Georgia, who talks southern and loves to go up north and talk to people because they look at me funny. And now they're listening to you funny, right, on this special broadcast podcast.

I love it. Hey, so you are just a little guy, and suddenly you find yourself, there's the Goddard Family Store, and then in the back there is the Goddard Family Funeral Home, and you find yourself packing shelves. The next thing you know, you find yourself embalming, or in the back of a hearse, or going with your daddy to talk to a family. What was that like as a little guy, jumping into the family business? I mean, you were dying to get into that, huh?

Yeah, there's a couple of things that happened. You know, watching my dad as a kid go into these places where he knew everybody, and everybody knew him, everybody loved him, and I was a kid, and he would take me from 13 years old, I started going with him on death calls, and I literally was worried if I could pick up my side of the stretcher when we went out. But I'd watch him go in these situations, and I would see people's head lift up a little bit, because he was there, and he knew what he was doing, and I, as an early age, I knew I wanted to do what my daddy was doing. I'm never away from there.

I went to the University of Georgia, and I knew when I got through, I was going to mortuary school, because I want to come back and do what my daddy was doing. I had an opportunity to do that, but yeah, when 13 years old, you probably read in my book, and the first death call I went on, it was quite a story. I don't know if you remember that one, do you? Yeah, I do, and goodness, I mean, there are just, so, and this is what I like about your book. These are quick, pithy stories. I mean, I flipped the page, and there's another chapter, and I really like that, because I don't have a long attention span.

Now, all of these stories are in his book View from a Hearse, subtitled Lighten Up, by the author Bruce Goddard, donned in his nice suit, leaning casually in a beautiful sunlight against the Goddard funeral home Hearse, and then his sequel is The Legacy of Eulan Brown, where you tell more stories, and I just got to hear, you got to tell everybody about this sweet lady who kind of took care of you guys, and y'all ended up taking care of her and her family. Sweet lady in your home can make some amazing food, but she got, she had to answer that telephone, and because you had one telephone, and if you missed a call, it could be trouble, right? Oh, there's no question about it. We were in bondage to the telephone. Think about being in a small town funeral home before, funeral home business, before you were, before there was call forwarding, call answering, answering machines. Listen, we got the first answering machine to ever hit our county, and you needed six pallbearers to get that thing in the house.

It was a huge deal. We were glad to have it, I can tell you that, because it gave us a little freedom, but yeah, we would answer the phone as the kids. I was trained that we had a phone, that one phone we had was in the hall of our house, in a little cubby hole in the hall, and some of you will remember that, that you had one phone kept in the hall, and we had another phone on the desk at the funeral home that was a block away, and we had one phone number, and I was trained as a kid when that phone rang, I had to answer it, Goddard Funeral Home, at home.

If I say, if I said hello, I'd get slapped. And I remember vividly sitting on the floor, on the, in the hall, on the floor, talking on that black rotary dial telephone one day, and mama, daddy one walked by and slapped me kind of on the back, said, Bruce, get off the phone, somebody may be dead. Lord have mercy, I can't, I can't talk on the phone, so we couldn't even stay on the phone, but yeah, we had, uh, Miss Jessie was her name, she was a wonderful, wonderful lady, I could talk all day about her, but she couldn't hear very good, and she, but sometimes she would answer the phone, and I think that probably the story you're talking about is when mama and daddy were going to go eat dinner with Dr. Watley and Rosemary, they lived next door, they're best friends, and, and daddy asked Miss Jessie, would she answer the phone, and, uh, and, uh, if she would, if something, you know, write down the name of who called, and the phone number, and then come next door to Dr. Watley's house to get him, I heard all that, I was really young, and, but I knew what they were doing, and I knew the phone rang, and they were gone, and I remember that, and I remember she didn't write anything down, but daddy told the story, she went next door to get daddy, and she said, Ed, somebody's dead, and she said, well, did you get, who is it? She said, well, to tell you the truth, they were upset. They said, well, did you, you didn't get the name of who died? She said, no, I'm sorry, they were upset. She said, did you get the phone number? She said, Ed, to tell you the truth, when they got upset, I got upset. She said, you mean to tell me that somebody's passed away, and they, and they called our funeral home to come, the family's called our funeral home to come get them, and you didn't get the name or the phone number of, of who it is? She said, well, Ed, you and Dr. Watley right here, but don't y'all know somebody around here that's been low sick?

They had to travel all over town trying to figure out this. You know, that reminds me of another story. Well, hold that other story, because we got to take a break. A view from the hearse, you're getting a few from the hearse from Bruce Goddard.

More stories, you're going to be blown away. We're taking you inside the world of the funeral service, and we're talking to a Christian undertaker, and no, that's not an oxymoron. This guy loves Jesus, and he speaks all over the country, goes places that a preacher can't even get into, and shares about Christ, and he's got more stories. What about golf?

What about the family store? What about speaking all over the country? Wait till you hear more from Bruce Goddard, some bizarre stories, view from the hearse. After this, hang on, more Truth Talk is coming up. Don't forget about our Truth Talk podcast. Learn all about us. Follow me on social media, at Stu Epperson, Instagram. We've got Facebook. I'm there too. Please reach out, and you'll meet Bruce there too, because we're going to load all this stuff up there so everyone can be encouraged, and make sure you get a copy or multiple copies of all of his books. This is the Truth Network.