The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted businesses and forced some to close.

Superior's Caring Friends In Home Care is among the businesses that hadto make adjustments but the owners and staff members of the business launched in 2017 are working hard to make lemonade out of the lemons delivered by the pandemic.

Prior to the pandemic the business office was located in the Kingswood Court building at Tenth and Idaho in north Superior. However, the pandemicrestricted access to the building and the business office had to find a new location.

For the first weeks, Chris Heitmann, the Nebraska regional coordinator, tried to operate the business from her home. That was not satisfactory. In mid-July the Caring Friends In Home Care office was relocated to the space in downtown Superior which had been vacated when Edward Jones Investments office moved to a new building.

At first the new location appeared spacious but Heitmann said it is filling rapidly as the business continues to grow during the pandemic.

Caring Friends In Home Care now serves clients in 20 Nebraska counties and has a satellite office in Geneva. When the business opened in March of 2017, service was limited to Thayer and Nuckolls counties. It has grown rapidly since then.

It now has eight county coordinators, two district coordinators and 145 employees.

Michelle Sorsen is the executive director and owner. Trish Shuck is the Superior office assistant. Jamie Henderson is the site coordinator for Nuckolls and Webster counties. Christy Geiger and Haylee Williams are district coordinators working out of the Geneva office.

Caring Friends care for individuals of all ages including children and works closely with hospice, therapists and physicians.

Services are adjusted to meet the needs of the client and may include meal preparation and planning, light housekeeping, laundry, shopping, errands, conversation, companionship, reading, technology assistance. bathing and grooming, personal hygiene, dressing, mobility assistance, medication reminders, diet monitoring, transportation, respite care, dementia care, end of life care, fall prevention and light exercise programs.

In addition to private pay, the services may be paid for by most longterm care insurance plans, Medicaid Waiver and the Veterans Administration.

Unlike some service provided, Caring Friends In Home Care tries to hire within the county being served and does not charge for travel time.

During the pandemic, some families have chosen to remove loved ones from nursing homes and are now trying to care for them at home with the help of Caring Friends In Home services.