MEMOIR

Mica Mosbacher

Racing Forward: Faith, Love & Triumph Over Loss

Bright Sky Press

Hardcover, 978-1-939055-91-0, 295 pgs., $24.95

November 4, 2015

Mica Mosbacher’s husband Robert, oilman and former United States Secretary of Commerce, died of pancreatic cancer in 2010. Newly widowed and casting about for purpose to get her through, she found inspiration in Godstone Ranch Motorsports, an organization involved in Formula One racing for charity. Because there is no “Widowhood for Dummies book,” Mosbacher attempts to fill that void. Employing an auto racing metaphor, she provides guidance through “widow’s fog.”

A handsome and well-designed volume, Racing Forward: Faith, Love and Triumph Over Loss is Mica Mosbacher’s memoir that addresses the many varieties of loss — death, “break-ups, divorce, injury, disabilities, illness, friendships and careers, even a loss of innocence” — and how loss may be worked through, learned from, and, finally, moved past, a process she terms “grieving forward.”

Mosbacher is not easily pigeonholed, nor should she be. Some readers may view her as only a product of a particular subset of Houston high society. This impression is encouraged by profuse name-dropping of European royalty clotting the narrative and, while we all empathize with divorces, job layoffs, and health scares, the majority may find it difficult to identify with Mosbacher as she likens her troubles to those of the biblical Job at a time when her paramount concerns were retaining her River Oaks high-rise apartment and keeping her son in private Episcopal school.

However, she was not born into this caste and is candid and forthright regarding hard times and questionable judgment in her past. She broke into journalism when it was still a boys’ game and became an award-winning print journalist and public relations professional. Deeply involved in community projects and charities, Mosbacher is a feminist with strong Christian faith, and a formidable fundraising force in Republican politics.

Mosbacher wrote Racing Forward in hopes of inspiring others with her personal story. She writes movingly of her husband’s illness and the aftermath. There are helpful recommendations, such as the importance of mentors and role models, and practical tips involving finances and how to avoid exploitation and those who would take advantage. She warns of “yellow flags and road hazards,” and advises that “God can’t steer a parked car” and “rest stops have their purpose” but don’t linger, and other such truisms. These are lessons Mosbacher learned the hard way.

* * * * *