Follow up messages (from Greg's family) on the HACA forum have asked for no direct emails or calls until he is stabilized. Many, many well wishes are being posted on the HACA forum. I have taken the opportunity to post one on behalf of the medieval study group from Higgins Armory Museum.

Here is the original notice/posting:

<<
FYI to All:

During class yesterday, Greg Mele was injured while wrestling. There was some injury to the spine, but he does have movement/feeling in hands and feet.

He is currently at Nortwestern Memorial Hospital ICU room 950, but is unable to receive visitors or phone calls until Thursday.

We'll keep you posted as we learn more.

Ashley Bishop
Chicago Swordplay Guild
>>

Best wishes for a speedy recovery!
Peter Kliem

A terrible accident! I will keep Greg in my prayers. I pray for a full recovery for him, he is a very nice fellow.

Thank you for informing us, and let us know when we can send get well wishes, etc.

<<Message

For those of you not on Nicole's mailing list she has informed us that Greg is improving about as fast as it's possible to and should be out of ICU soon. They expect him to take some time to fully recover though.>>

Nicole, Greg's girlfriend asked for this to be posted to various fora.

Cheers

Hi everyone. This is just a quick one owing to the lateness of the hour. I just wanted you to know that Greg had his best day yet today. He was back to himself - regaling me with stories and ideas. He is filled with optimism and plans for the future. There are still alot of rough spots - it will be a hard road back to health - but he will make it. He should be able to start seeing people this week. I'll let people know ndividually. The idea is that it gets coordinated through me so he doesn't get overwhelmed.

I wanted to tell you all that one of Greg's dear friends took the time to print out messages from the various forums and I spent the evening reading them to him. he(and I)were so moved at the out pouring of sentiment - let's just say we had to stop alot and take it all in. You-all are amazing. Once Greg has had a chance to compose a response I will post for him. We also got a chance to go over the recent thread in the HACA forum regarding safety and it stimulated a long talk about all the implications of his accident. He will address this all in time with an appropriate post. Who knows, this thing might even get me to come out of the woodwork and post - in my desire to see this wake-up call reach as far and wide as possible may drive me to it - but don't hold your breath. For those of you who don't know me - I am Greg's girlfriend and a member of the Chicago Swordplay Guild. I share the passion (some say obsession) that Greg and all of CSG have for WMA.

I also wanted to clear-up a few things about getting messages to Greg. Feel free to email Greg at this address and I will get it to him. If you'd like to call and leave a message (I'm not home much) just email me privately and I'll send you my number - and I will also call you back as soon as I can. A few individual notes I need add on here for expediences' sake. This is in no way is a comprehensive list of those I have to thank...
I need someone to take the intiative and post this message on all the forums so everybody has some news and a way of getting messages to Greg. Anybody who wants to be included in the updates just email me your address.

Love and peace to all.
Nicole
GryphsGirl@aol.com

Hello all.

Greg got his collar off today. They took pictures and the neck's healing
miraculously. They'll check again in a week just to make sure but
everything looks really good. This means his neck is back to doing it's job
and he is no longer in need of any apparatti. He's feeling pretty good, to
although living at RIC is getting really old. Those of us in town have
taken to relieving 'food fatigue' by importing meals from the real word.

For those of you who have asked his realize date is tentatively set for
Nov. 30th but that's subject to change based on progress.

I don't have much else to report other than he continues to get to stronger
at a blindingly fast rate given the serious nature of his injury but
painfully slow for him - he's more than ready to be better - as you might
imagine. I apologize for the lack of detail but as you know, Greg has asked
that the details of his recovery not be discussed in this public, rather
impersonal forum. So just know that he is working very, very hard and its
going to a while more before he's back to full health.

If you'd like to call him you can reach him at (I removed the phone number) between the
hours of 4pm-10pm, Monday through Friday and 9am-10pm Sat and Sunday.

For those of you who don't know Greg's 30th birthday is next Tuesday(Nov.
6th). He's asked that it be a rather low key celebration - with the
intention that we all get together after he is out and celebrate for real.
I will be giving him the card with everybody's names who has asked that
they be included and your donations for his computer. So if you haven't
sent me your name to be included and want to be - or if want to send a
donation and haven't yet - please let me know so that I can include it.

Take care all and, as always, thank you from me and from Greg for your
kindness and thoughtfulness.

Nicole

Thank you for giving us the update.

Gee, I didn't know this had all been posted over here. Thanks for the concern and well wishes!

As Bob says, I'm on the mend, it'll just take awhile. (Sure, I can't train or wear harness right now, so my new helm from Peter Fuller is finished, and my hauberk from Erik Schmidt nearly so. Figures, eh? ;-)! )

On behalf of Nicole and myself, thank you for you continued concern.