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The intimate film, Taking Care, screened Wednesday, Nov. 11, at the Ashley Gibson Barnett Museum of Art during Lakeland’s Arts and Health Week. The 38-minute documentary follows Adele’s decline, her love story with husband Scott, and the courtship and marriage of their daughter, Lauren Miller Rogen, a screenwriter, to actor and filmmaker Seth Rogen.
In a prerecorded introduction, Lauren recalled attending Harrison School for the Arts, walking through the AGB Museum’s galleries every day on her way to classes upstairs. “Lakeland and this museum specifically is such an important part of my story,” she said.
Seth described the film as a story of resilience and “the power of taking action in the face of something that can feel very overwhelming.”
Museum Executive Director Daryl Ward asked attendees to raise their hands if someone close to them had been affected by Alzheimer’s or dementia. Roughly two-thirds did.
“While there’s a lot of sadness tonight, it’s not about sadness,” Ward said. “It’s about hope.”
Remembering Adele before Alzheimer’s
The Millers moved to Lakeland in the late 1980s and remained part of the community until Scott and Adele relocated to California in the early 2010s. Their son, Dan, graduated from George Jenkins High School in 1998, while Lauren graduated from Harrison the following year.
Adele taught at Sikes Elementary School in south Lakeland, and in 2003 was named the school’s Teacher of the Year.
Dan told LkldNow his mother frequently stayed after school to help students. Her award came just “three or four years before things really went downhill,” he said, reflecting on how quickly her health deteriorated.
Marlene Wlodawski, a longtime friend, met Adele through Temple Emanuel, the oldest and largest Jewish synagogue in Lakeland. She remembered sharing Jewish holidays, helping with synagogue events, and carpooling their children.
“Marlene, I always have to do my part,” Wlodawski recalled Adele saying. Despite working full time, Adele regularly picked up the children when Wlodawski drove them earlier.
The unfairness of Alzheimer’s
Adele was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s at 55. Living in Connecticut, Dan confronted his parents about his mother’s decline and his father’s growing caregiving responsibilities.
During an hourlong car ride, Dan urged his mother to reconsider returning to teaching. “Maybe you should enjoy your life. Maybe you should go take a vacation with Dad,” he remembered telling her.
Eventually, Scott and Adele moved to Los Angeles, where Lauren and Seth, by then successful in Hollywood, helped make round-the-clock in-home care possible.
The documentary shows Adele’s gradual loss of her ability to speak, walk, and feed herself. She died in 2020.
“It’s still heartbreaking,” Wlodawski said of watching those scenes. She told LkldNow Adele was “a very private person” who initially resisted disclosing her illness.
Dan said the film went through “many, many versions,” including scenes he “felt not so great about.” Ultimately, the family chose to share its experience publicly to help others understand the disease.
As credits rolled, a closing song with the mournful refrain, “You can’t get back what is gone,” offered catharsis for the film’s emotional weight. There were few dry eyes in the museum theater.
Bringing laughter and light to a taboo topic
Lauren and Seth co-founded Hilarity for Charity (HFC) in 2012, using comedy fundraisers and celebrity connections to confront a disease that often isolates families.
The film features entertainers including Sarah Silverman, Michael Che, and Samuel L. Jackson, along with activists in T-shirts reading: “Alzheimer’s sucks but comedy doesn’t.”
Bonnie Wattles, HFC’s executive director, said the organization challenges the shame and stigma surrounding Alzheimer’s by “talking loudly and proudly about the disease.”
“There is no cure for Alzheimer’s or other dementias. But there is care,” said Dan, now HFC’s board chair.
HFC reports awarding more than 530,000 hours of in-home care relief. Its programs include virtual support groups, caregiver wellness services, and an interactive Caregiver Road Trip guide offering practical assistance through the stages of dementia care.
Wattles, who cares for her own father with dementia, urged struggling caregivers to seek support. “You’re not alone,” she said.
New reasons for hope
Medical professionals on Wednesday’s panel described advances that offer families more hope than when Adele became ill.
Dr. Amanda G. Smith, clinical research director at USF Health Byrd Alzheimer’s Institute, treated Adele early in her illness. “Your mother was a volunteer in research that helped us get to where we are now,” she told Dan. The trial was unsuccessful, but its findings helped inform later treatments.
Meanwhile, Dr. Guillermo Vasquez, chief medical information officer at Watson Clinic, urged families not to dismiss significant memory problems as normal aging.
“It’s not a matter of ‘I lost my keys,'” he explained. “It’s that ‘I lost my keys, and I forgot that I even have keys.'”
Smith also highlighted the 2025 U.S. POINTER study, which found that exercise, healthier eating, cognitive activities, and cardiovascular health monitoring improved cognitive performance among older adults at risk of decline.
Dan has prioritized brain health, participating in an Alzheimer’s prevention clinic and adopting healthier habits. He said research advances give him much more optimism than his family had during his mother’s illness.
“You can’t go backwards,” he said, “but you can definitely go forwards.”
The award-winning film ‘Taking Care’ is currently available to stream on Prime Video.
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