A Road Less Traveled:

Gail Neustadt’s latest book features beautiful illustrations and whimsical animals in a tale meant to enchant. This is one book, however, you should not judge by its cover. It shares a very personal story — portraying in a dreamlike manner an experience that was very real and very challenging.

Written under her pen name, Dylan Weiss, “Traveling Our Road” describes the winding 15-year journey she took with her late husband, David Neustadt, as they navigated his life with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.

While the experience was challenging for Gail, it was especially hard for her grandson to understand what was happening to grandpa. She wrote him a special story, originally known as “Dave’s Tale.”

To help other families experiencing the same journey, Gail decided to publish the tale. She chose illustrator Abigail Walouke, who brought the story to life with unique animal drawings.

Throughout her more than a decade as a caregiver, Gail felt she had lost her sense of humor. Using animals to tell David’s story was her way of recapturing it.

“When I started writing, the animals wrote the story. The animals were in my soul,” she said.

“My skunks, beavers, whale, walking stick and mouse, all were there. They did some pretty hilarious things, bringing humor back into my life. After all, laughter is the best medicine.”

Ideally, “Traveling Our Road” would be read by a parent to a child prior to visiting an ill grandparent, particularly one with some form of dementia, like Alzheimer’s, to help alleviate anxiety regarding an upcoming visit. The book provides ideas to the child, allowing them to establish their grandparent’s inner smile, for example, by sharing a special talent like playing an instrument, singing a song or drawing a picture.

The story includes symbolism for adults, such as when the man in the book gives the woman blue flowers, known as forget-me-nots, which are a symbol of Alzheimer’s. The flowers symbolize Gail taking responsibility for David as his caregiver. There are two characters, Amy and Lloyd, who represent the amyloid plaque that is found on the brain of those with Alzheimer’s. Also in the story, the mouse who scans the landscape on the isle of ills turns to the left, which is symbolic of how the left side of the brain controls language and how Alzheimer’s also caused communication issues for David.

Gail donates profits from independent sales of the book, available on Amazon, to research prevention and/or a cure for early-onset Alzheimer’s.

After David passed away, Gail chaired her local Parks and Recreation Board, and her involvement with the park system, along with promoting green efforts, inspired her “Skunk Tales Trilogy,” a fictional series about environmental destruction and how the animal characters confront it. Written under her pen name, the books include “Norton’s Tale” and “Sebastian’s Tale,” with the third book in the series, “A Tale of Quinn’s Quill,” underway. In this story, Quinn, a porcupine, is an investigative reporter looking into how beavers, groundhogs and skunks can organize to save a new environmental threat.

“I’ll be sad when I finish the three books,” she said. “I’ll lose my animal friends. But by using my voice and the power of the pen, I’ve met new and fascinating people, now good friends, who have helped me become the effective advocate and educator I am today.”

Gail spent her career as a speech-language pathologist, specializing in geriatrics, having also minored in psychology and English literature. She owned a rehabilitation contract company providing physical, occupational and speech-language therapy in long-term care settings. She has had a variety of experiences writing articles, speeches, manuals and how-to guidelines.

Her first foray into writing was based on personal experiences with her mother, who had Parkinson’s disease. After some frustrations navigating Medicare regulations to get her mother the proper treatment, Gail was inspired to make a difference by writing “Reimbursable Geriatric Service Delivery, a Functional Maintenance Therapy System,” published by Aspen, which became a best seller in her profession. This led to an invitation by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to assist in the development of new assessment tools to be used in long-term care settings, still in effect today.

Her article about the creative communications program she developed while caring for her husband, “Sharing the Load,” won an Excel Award for the American SpeechLanguage-Hearing Association (ASHA) from the Society of National Association of Publishers in the literary category.

Although “Traveling Our Road” is a memoir intended for children, Gail’s publisher is encouraging her to write a full memoir, sharing specific difficulties along that caregiving road and what she did. Gail has also shared a new version of “Dave’s Tale” with her three other grandchildren who were born after he died, and thus a sequel to “Traveling Our Road” is in the works. In this one, she will start at the end, with an image of herself handing David poppies to symbolize morphine, and then her heading down a green road.

On her website, www.authordylanweiss.com, is information about her books, articles and her blog, “Sky Writing,” where she shares the back stories about her writing, as well as some of her experiences with David.

Gail has lived at Masonic Village at Sewickley since 2022. She’s involved in the writers’ group and the Committee for Sustainable Living which aims to educate residents in understanding how lifestyle choices impact our environment and help find ways to live better.

“I love living here, among interesting neighbors with their own incredible stories,” she said. “One of the selling points for me was the Eden Alternative® certification in its health care center. This state-of-the-art philosophy of care, although specific to nursing facilities, is pervasive throughout all levels of care at Masonic Village, making it a unique regional continuing care retirement community.”

Gail will continue to use her words to inspire and educate her friends and neighbors. Using book sales, she has a way to give back.