In 2017, we introduced you to Gabriella Lindsay, sharing her family’s leap from Chicago to Mazatlán, Mexico after an unexpected loss. This time, we’re hearing the other half of the story — from her husband, Vernon.
The Lindsay family has since moved again, this time to Antigua and Barbuda, where Vernon now works as a university professor. From the outside, their path might look like effortless island-hopping — three beautiful countries, one after another. The reality was anything but easy: a house that went into foreclosure after they couldn’t sell it before leaving Chicago, income streams that didn’t pan out, and a job offer that had them packing for Antigua sight unseen in under two weeks.
In this conversation, Vernon traces the full arc — from a formative trip to Ethiopia at 19, to the family tragedy that turned “someday” into “now,” to raising three young Black children across three very different countries, to parenting sons through the weight of George Floyd’s murder from thousands of miles away.
How a college trip to Ethiopia sparked a lifelong pull toward life abroad for Black families
The family tragedy that turned Chicago-to-Mexico from a someday dream into an urgent decision
The financial reality behind raising Black children abroad — failed income streams, a foreclosed house, and building a new life anyway
How Vernon balances his role as a Black professor abroad with mentoring students navigating their own cross-cultural transitions
Parenting Black sons through George Floyd’s murder while living in Antigua and Barbuda — and preparing them for a country they’ve never really lived in
To hear the full episode, click below or listen wherever you get your podcasts.
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