Grit Diaries
Lindsay Ziehl · 44 min
Stranded in South Africa during COVID, unable to reach her son's body in Australia, Lindsay Ziehl turned catastrophic grief into a foundation — and found her turning point watching a tiny cat steal a frozen chicken at a bus stop between chemotherapy sessions.
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Lindsay Ziehl grew up moving between continents, learning from her father's quiet example of kindness and her mother's hunger for the world. That restlessness became her way of coping: adapt fast, make friends quickly, keep moving. At 22, she followed a musician to Africa and built a life in South Africa across nearly five decades, raising her son Andrew alone after her husband walked out. When Andrew asked to move back to Australia as a teenager, it broke her heart, but she let him go because she had been given the same freedom as a young woman. She owed him that choice.
In November 2020, a police officer called with no preamble: Andrew was dead. Lindsay was stranded in South Africa during COVID, unable to reach him, unable to grieve in the way she needed. Months later, people began calling her to say what Andrew had done in secret: bought concert tickets for people who could not afford them, called friends on their birthdays, showed up for people he never mentioned. That discovery shifted everything. A rabbi had told her to stop asking why and start asking what now, and those words became her turning point. She founded the Andrew Zeal Foundation and spent decades training roughly 3,000 women in shelters across South Africa, giving each one a certificate at the end because for a woman broken down by abuse with no work history, that piece of paper was like gold.
During her second battle with cancer, sitting at a bus station between chemotherapy sessions, Lindsay watched a tiny black and white cat steal a frozen chicken nearly its own size and carry it back to feed its kittens. The cat did not ask why the burden was so heavy. It simply carried what it had to carry because love made it necessary. That moment taught her what survival actually looks like, and it has stayed with her for years. At 77, Lindsay still plans ahead, still refuses to retire, and still knows that grief is something you never get over but something you learn from, so you can help someone else carry theirs.
⚠️ Content advisory: this episode discusses domestic & family violence and grief & loss, which some listeners may find distressing.
If you need support, you're not alone. Help is available: • 1800RESPECT (family, domestic & sexual violence): 1800 737 732 · 1800respect.org.au • Lifeline (24/7 crisis support): 13 11 14 · lifeline.org.au • GriefLine: 1300 845 745 · griefline.org.au
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