LAUREL — Although it took 74-year-old Linda Lund some time to come around to Hillcrest Care Center and Assisted Living, she eventually insisted it was home.

Lund, who has dementia, became attached to the city-owned nursing home and the people in it after adjusting, said her daughter Brenda Anderson.

Lund grew up in Laurel, a northeast Nebraska town of nearly 1,000 people, and knew many of the Hillcrest residents who occupied its 36 beds. When going on trips outside the home, she would insist on being back by 6 p.m., her daughter said.

The rural nursing home’s closure in April, one of 17 in the state in the last four years, forced Lund to move to a nearby facility in a different town, again starting the process of acclimating to a new environment — this time around strangers.

Months lat

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