Scott Bolzan

My Life, Deleted

A Memoir

Talking Points

Scott Bolzan’s life has been marked by determination and perseverance since his days as a star high school and college athlete in his home state of Illinois, and later as an offensive guard in the NFL. When an injury ended his football career in 1986, he began a career as a financial planner, earning his pilot’s license along the way. In 1994, Scott bought his first airplane and began flying his own and other planes for hire, later founding his own jet charter business. Since suffering a traumatic brain injury, he has traveled the country sharing his inspirational story.

Description

Scott Bolzan’s life and the lives of everyone who loved him were forever changed when he slipped, hit his head, and lost consciousness in his office bathroom, suffering one of the most severe cases of permanent retrograde amnesia on record. With heartrending honesty and no shortage of humor, the Bolzans share their remarkable journey as Scott navigates his way through a now-unfamiliar world. The challenges are initially overwhelming: Scott’s debilitating headaches, his relearning of social etiquette (taking cues from The Sopranos!), Joan’s grief over the loss of the man she married and their shared history, the financial burden of Scott’s lost income, his mounting medical bills, and the agony of their twenty-year-old son’s struggles with drug addiction.

But remarkably, My Life, Deleted is above all else a celebration of extraordinary perseverance, and of the enduring love that emerges when we are most tested. Scott learns to trust his intuition in a way few people ever will, while Joan taps into a well of patience and resourcefulness she didn’t know she had. Throughout it all, what unfolds—against all odds—is an enviable romance as Scott and Joan fall in love all over again. Both gut-wrenching and brimming with optimism, the Bolzans’ captivating story makes a powerful statement about commitment—and the possibility of finding extraordinary opportunity in life’s greatest challenges.