This world is not for you

Karl Heinzen and I went to high school together. This kid was - there is no other way to put it - full of life. Everybody loved him - his peers, his teachers, everyone. Karl was a good person - he had a good spirit.
I cannot believe he is gone. I didn't know what people meant when they would say they could still hear someone, or see someone after they were gone - but I understand: I can still hear Karl's laugh. His face keeps swimming in front of me - as he pulls a prank on one of his buddies, forgets a line from our play. I hear his laugh, and I think - why? why did he have to die? why did this kid with so much spunk and life, and happiness leave us?
I can only think: Indeed we are for Allah - and to Allah do we all return.

Man Is Swept Into Ocean, as Father’s Rescue Try Fails
Daniel Barry for The New York Times

Karl Heinzen, who was swept away by a wave near Breezy Point, in a photograph held by his mother, Linda Arvay.

By EMILY VASQUEZ and ANN FARMER
Published: October 9, 2006

Karl Heinzen battled the first wave that swept him off the jetty as he was fishing yesterday morning near Breezy Point at the western tip of the Rockaways.

He swam back to the strip of jagged gray boulders, and pulled off his jacket and tried to get his waders off, too, knowing that they could fill with water and weigh him down like an anchor.

Then another wave crashed, six or eight feet tall, and again the swelling waters of the Atlantic drew him in.

This time, the jetty rocks were out of Mr. Heinzen’s reach, and his father, who had been fishing nearer to shore and saw his son go under, also had to battle the waves and was unable to rescue him.

Mr. Heinzen, 21, remained missing yesterday evening.

“He just loved to fish,” said his father, Jerome Heinzen, 59. Karl started fishing with his family in Prospect Park when he was just a toddler, he said, but as he grew older the location near Breezy Point, called Gateway Jetty, became the favorite spot for father and son.

“They went all year round, rain or shine, the fishing was good,” said Karl’s mother, Linda Arvay. “He always went out the farthest. He had no fear.”

When the waves began to strike the jetty’s slick rocks about 8 a.m., Karl Heinzen started walking the 20 or so feet toward his father.

When the first wave swept Karl off the jetty, his father ran to help him, but as the second wave carried Karl away, Mr. Heinzen was also carried into the water. Another fisherman pulled Jerome Heinzen back onto the rocks, and they looked up to see that there was another chance for Karl’s rescue.

A boat, the Dorothy B VIII, which charters fishing trips from Sheepshead Bay, had just passed the jetty, but circled back fast to throw Karl a lifeline with a buoy attached. But Karl — who had been a mate on the boat in high school — could not snatch it.

“He was a few feet from the buoy but didn’t have enough strength to grab it,” Mr. Heinzen said.

It was unclear yesterday if his son had been able to shed his waders, which was “exactly as he was taught to do,” Ms. Arvay said.

The United States Park Police, the New York Fire and Police Departments and the Coast Guard searched for Mr. Heinzen. Because of the tide, the search was called off after 5 p.m.

By then, Ms. Arvay had already gone back to the family car. Jerome Heinzen still stood with his daughter on the jetty, watching as the rescue boats drifted away.