Sadly, one of many extra tragic points of the beloved romantic drama The Pocket book has seemingly come true. 93-year-old Gena Rowlands, who performed the dementia-stricken older model of Allie within the 2004 hit, is coping with Alzheimer’s illness, in response to her son Nick Cassavetes, who additionally directed the movie.”I bought my mother to play older Allie, and we spent a whole lot of time speaking about Alzheimer’s and desirous to be genuine with it, and now, for the final 5 years, she’s had Alzheimer’s,” Cassavetes instructed Leisure Weekly. “She’s in full dementia. And it is so loopy—we lived it, she acted it, and now it is on us.”Nick Cassavetes is the son of Rowlands and actor-filmmaker John Cassavetes, a pioneer of impartial cinema greatest identified for his starring function in Rosemary’s Child and for steering his spouse in A Girl Below the Affect. John Cassavetes additionally forged his mother-in-law, Girl Rowlands (her title, not a title), in a few of his movies, and she or he, too, struggled with Alzheimer’s throughout her later years.“This final one—The Pocket book, based mostly on the novel by Nicholas Sparks—was notably exhausting as a result of I play a personality who has Alzheimer’s. I went by that with my mom, and if Nick hadn’t directed the movie, I do not assume I might have gone for it,” Gena Rowlands instructed O journal in 2004. “It is simply too exhausting. It was a tricky however great film.”Within the movie, the older model of Noah (James Garner) reads the love story of their youthful counterparts (performed by Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling) to his spouse, who by the tip has a second of readability and acknowledges him. It’s doubly heart-breaking, then, when she once more turns into confused and forgets Noah. Within the remaining moments, the pair die of their sleep holding each other, a bittersweet and really romantic second. We want the Rowlands-Cassavetes household the very best.