Candlelight vigil for the late LBHS student

“I woke up this morning and I went into his room and I grabbed his pillow and I hugged it and I just sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to him, because I know he’s still with me,” Christopher Cuzzo’s father, Chris Cuzzo Sr., told the crowd at a candlelight ceremony for his late son on Tuesday. “I think about him every day, and I’ll always hold him here in my heart.”

According to the Long Beach Police Department, Cuzzo was found dead in the family’s Wilson Avenue home at around 6 a.m. on July 6, five days before he would have turned 17. His death is being investigated, and the Nassau County medical examiner is conducting an autopsy.

“… [H]e was pronounced [dead] at the hospital,” said Sgt. Eric Cregeen, a police spokesman, referring to the Long Beach Medical Center.

A funeral mass for Cuzzo was held on Monday at St. Mary of the Isle Roman Catholic Church.

His family and friends declined to talk about the circumstances of his death, but said that it came as a shock.

They described him as an amiable teen who was constantly cracking jokes and who loved rap music and eating cheeseburgers. He would have been a senior at Long Beach High School in September.

More than 50 people turned out for a candlelight vigil at the Pacific Boulevard beach on Tuesday. “Chris meant the absolute world to me, and he had the biggest golden heart you could ever imagine,” said his girlfriend, Suzanne Berotti. “He loved everyone so much, especially his family and all of his friends, and he just lit up everyone’s life. He always had a smile on his face.”

The gathering was organized by Cuzzo’s close friend Paige Kee, to celebrate Chris’s birthday and to share fond memories as well. Friends and family members held candles in cups that read “Happy Birthday” and wrote messages on orange and blue balloons for Chris, who was a diehard Mets fan. As the balloons drifted skyward, everyone sang “Happy Birthday” in voices filled with emotion.

“This is his first birthday in heaven,” said his aunt, Christin Snow.