Umbrella Supports Seniors with Concierge Services

Life has changed drastically in New Jersey in the past six weeks. The state has reported more than 146,000 cases of Covid-19, at least 10,000 people have died, and Gov. Phil Murphy’s stay-at-home order has been extended indefinitely. In the state with the most cases and deaths after New York, residents are volunteering time, energy and money and businesses are using their resources to help others,

After Carmela Thone’s husband died four years ago, the Huntington grandmother, 67, faced an endless to-do list of garden-variety chores around her house that her late husband, Bob, would have easily tackled. Thone, a retired secretary, rattled off a list of odd jobs that she can no longer do herself.

When Peter and Lorraine Derise saw how fast coronavirus was spreading, they were terrified. “If I become infected, chance is I won’t survive,” said Peter Derise, 75, who suffers from COPD, diabetes and recently had open heart surgery. “We started to think, ‘How are we going to get out to the stores?’”