Early one morning two years ago, Gail Kuhnlein left her beloved home in Pittsfield Township’s Hidden Creek subdivision for heart surgery and almost didn’t return. 

Kuhnlein, now sixty, suffered complications during the scheduled repair of a congenital defect in her mitral valve, and was in a medically induced coma for weeks before she recovered. When she returned two months later to the home she shares with her husband, Tim, it was with a new perspective on life. “This,” she says, “is all bonus time.”  

The couple, who met as students at Michigan State, have been married thirty-six years, and raised their sons Davey and Trevor (now both grown) in the 1990s subdivision within a Pittsfield Township pocket that has a Saline address but is served by the Ann Arbor Public Schools. After the health scare, Kuhnlein retired from her communications job with U-M’s ecology and evolutionary biology department; Tim retired soon after as controller for a local company. 

A children’s book author, Kuhnlein hails from a long line of writers, including her maternal grandmother, both of her parents, and her son, Davey—who’s a published author of sci-fi horror, and poetry. She says it was “good teachers” who introduced her to the “thrill” of creating her first “little books,” and she’s dedicated decades to her passion. Last year, she self-published How Happy Is a Lark?, a book of whimsical animal adventures, and next year she plans to publish Into the Thicket, which is also animal themed. 

She doesn’t have to look far for inspiration. When her boys were young, she says, “I remember seeing rabbits in the backyard and thinking, ‘I never want to move.’” Their lush backyard with a cozy patio and wildflower garden backs up to township woods and prairie. She’s cross-country skied there in the winters and walks the neighborhood’s sidewalks to Pittsfield’s farmers’ market.

When her boys were growing up, they’d skate on a neighborhood pond, play at the nearby Warner Creek park, and join the Halloween parade led by a neighbor dad in a pumpkin suit. The parade no longer happens, but the neighborhood’s annual picnic and an Earth Day cleanup continue. Although there are just some “originals” left, including the Kuhnleins, she says many young families are moving in and putting down roots. 

The Kuhnleins enjoy their weekday dates at Brewed Awakenings for oat milk lattes, dinners at Salt Springs Brewery for mushroom pizza or fish and chips, and walking and biking Pittsfield Preserve’s trails. Another favorite stop is Mill Pond Park, where they recently glimpsed a fox and a flock of tree sparrows. 

Their proximity to both Ann Arbor’s and Saline’s downtowns continues to be a draw—as well as access to medical care at U-M Hospitals, where she says, “they saved my life.” 

“My heart’s doing great,” she says. “I am so grateful to be here.”

Kuhnlein will host an author table at Brewed Awakenings in Saline, 3–5 p.m. October 26, 2024; she will also be at the Ann Arbor Community Bookfest on November 3.