Love or Die Trying - by Bob Ramsay (Paperback)

About the Book

Bob Ramsay had it all, but by forty he was living in a drug treatment centre. Starting over, he began dating a doctor and they created an "out there" life for themselves. Then one day Bob's heart stopped and life got much worse after it was re-started. Love or Die Trying is a reminder that it's never too late to start over.

Book Synopsis

"A ruthlessly honest memoir of love, loss, and redemption." -- WADE DAVIS

A story of addiction and recovery, love and perseverance, and a reminder that it's never too late to start over.

Bob Ramsay had it all -- and lost it all, often. At forty, he lived in a drug treatment centre in Atlanta. Starting over back in Toronto, he began dating an older woman, a doctor named Jean Marmoreo, who had three teenage kids. The chances of this relationship lasting were zero. But they married and created a very different "out there" life for themselves, climbing mountains, running marathons, and exploring the ends of the earth.

Then one day Bob's heart stopped, and life got much worse after it was restarted. But once again, perseverance and love won over fate, and today, Bob turns connection into an art form, while Jean Marmoreo is a MAiD doctor, leading her patients across the thin veil between life and death.

Love or Die Trying is a love story that unfolded against all odds and a reflection on a life anchored between a first death and the future.

Review Quotes

A revealing and generous memoir.-- "Winnipeg Free Press"

A ruthlessly honest memoir of love, loss, and redemption told with humour, grace, whimsy, and wit.

-- "Wade Davis, author of Passage of Darkness"

Bob Ramsay is mad, bad, and dangerous, no thank you, ' said the woman who ultimately married him; a love story filled with pain and fear, addiction and renewal; an overabundance of joy, I adored it!-- "Susan Ormiston, CBC Senior Correspondent"

This book, like Bob Ramsay himself, is a super charged, rollicking, sharp, funny, sometimes raw, always smart jolt of full-on life.-- "Zita Cobb co-founder and CEO of the Shorefast Foundation"

We all need stories where love wins. We all need hope in the midst of the challenges we face. We all need to know what's possible when there seems no way out or no way up. Bob courageously shares his life story. A life filled with challenges yet love won out, hope was restored, and now hope is offered to each of us.-- "Rev. Brent Hawkes, Senior Pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto"

Do not be fooled by the breezy elegance and light touch as Bob Ramsay dances through the chapters of his life. This is a potent story of denial and self-awareness, relentless humour and existential fear, addiction and recovery, desperation and acceptance. Against a backdrop of tragedies and setbacks, momentous world events and grand adventures, this is above all a redemptive love story about two extraordinary people.-- "Dr. David Goldbloom, Senior Medical Advisor of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health"

About the Author

Bob Ramsay is a communications consultant, writer, and founder of the speaker series RamsayTalks. He was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2015 and the Bernier Medal from the Royal Canadian Geographic Society in 2017. He lives in Toronto.