Cool Story About Wayne Gretzky And His Connection To A Rockaway Kid Who Died In 9/11

Rockaway Times – A little over five years ago, Gretzky happened to walk into Park Avenue Tavern, a Midtown haunt owned by locals, for a bite to eat. Barbara Heeran, mother of the late Charlie, also happened to be there at the same time. As the story goes, Mrs. Heeran handed Gretzky a Mass card of Charlie’s, and told him “this will bring you good luck.” Calmly he whispered, “I will carry this for the rest of my life.”

Charlie Heeran, at 23 years of age, perished in the World Trade Center on 9/11. He was an extremely charismatic, exceptionally bright, and well-liked individual. He had a lot of “best friends,” because that’s the way he made you feel.  A Xavier High School and U of Scranton product, he had a promising career on Wall Street as a Bond Trader at Cantor Fitzgerald. But most of all, he was a loving brother to Sean and Billy, and Annemarie and Bernadette, and proud son to Bernie and Barbara. His loss was devastating, not only to his family and friends, but to this community.

The story at Park Avenue Tavern made its rounds in small circles throughout the neighborhood. It was one of those, “Hey did you hear about this” kind of a story, and it made us all smile. Five years later, the story would come up with Gretzky himself over a drink with DJ Teddy. As Ted was inquiring to see if he made good on his promise, Gretzky abruptly ran to grab his wallet to produce the Mass card that Mrs. Heeran had given him. Gretzky then, for the first time showed the card to his younger children and stated, “this is Charlie, he was a good man, who WE lost at the World Trade Center on 9/11.”

A couple buddies from Rockaway sent me this story today. They were friends with Charlie Heeran. Went to Xavier with him. As is always the case when you hear these stories about 9/11, he seemed like a genuinely good kid. A real gem that was taken too soon. So its just a nice touching story to see that one of the greatest, most dominant athletes of all time understood just how important Charlie was to his friends and family too. I mean if there was ever a guy that had every reason to be cocky and forget about some exchange he had at a bar 5 years ago, its the Great One. I’m sure he’s had a billion people chat him up and tell him stories over the years. But the fact that Mrs. Heeran’s encounter stuck with him speaks volumes. Still carrying the mass card and telling his kids about who Charlie was and how “we” lost him is the sort of feel good stories you like to hear about your sports idols. The fact that Gretzky still hasnt lost sight of whats really important in this world is better than any of the accolades he owns in the record books.