By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Maria Simon is back to work at the Wood County District Public Library. Though she’s not up to rocking out, the children’s librarian is feeling well enough to return to see the Libraries Rock summer reading program through the end of the summer.
Simon was seriously injured June 6 in an automobile accident on I-75. She returned to work with restrictions a week ago. Simon said she was very pleased to be back, even if it’s just part time.
She attended the library’s Board of Trustees meeting Monday.
She suffered a broken sternum and a concussion, so she said she’s having to limit her contact with the public.
“Just a wave is all I need,” she said of well-wishers. She said that the library is a very private place, so many people probably aren’t aware of where she’s been. They may assume she’s been on vacation, Simon said.
The accident occurred just south of Cygnet Road in Wood County when the Toyota Prius she was driving struck another car that was driving erratically. While trying to avoid that car she also made contact with a tractor-trailer.
She, her husband Marc Simon, Bowling Green State University professor, and her mother, Mary Roemer, of South Bend, Indiana were on their way back to Bowling Green after traveling to Cincinnati to see a show the Simons’ daughter and son were performing.
Roemer was very seriously injured who was taken by air ambulance to St. Vincent’s in Toledo. She has now been transferred to a skilled nursing facility in South Bend.
So in addition to her own recovery, Simon was monitoring her mother’s care.
Simon said she appreciates returning to the library. “I love this place,” she said. “I love libraries. Libraries incredibly healing places, places of order and stability. There’s answers here.”
Answers are hard to come by in the world of medical care where even the experts can be baffled, especially when it comes to concussions and spinal injuries, such as those her mother suffered. That “world is full of care and concern, and definitely love and prayers. That’s very comforting, but it’s extremely scary.”
Back in the library “is very comforting and knowledgeable and orderly. And this place is a lot more fun.”
Simon said that she especially missed the children. Her injuries knocked her out of action just as the summer reading program with the theme Libraries Rock had started rolling.
But her staff “didn’t miss a beat,” she said. “They are rock stars.”
She’s even turned to the library collection to study up of the injuries she and her mother suffered. Sometimes that means a book aimed at young readers since it is written in easy-to-understand terms.
Simon though would like some answers from the legal system. As far as she knows no charges have been pressed against the other driver. And she still has a lot of questions about what led up the accident.
County Prosecuting Attorney Paul Dobson said his office “is still working with the State Highway Patrol to see what information and evidence is available.”
