PITTSTON - The quiet echo of "Happy Birthday" sounded throughout the crowd gathered on a football field in Pittston, people wishing happy birthday and bidding farewell to the father, boyfriend and friend gunned down just days before.
"I'm not a religious man, but I believe he's up there looking down on us," said family friend Donald Shea. "On top of losing Christopher, today is his birthday. Let's sing happy birthday to Christopher up in heaven."
About 200 people gathered in Albert West Park on Tuesday night, laughing and crying as they remembered Christopher Hughes, who would have been 24.
He was killed Sunday night when the father of his girlfriend's children allegedly shot him in the neck with a .50-caliber rifle at a Moosic mobile home park.
Adam Wickizer, 29, was charged shortly afterward with criminal homicide.
Many people wore orange, Mr. Hughes' favorite color, and gathered around a table with a birthday cake, balloons and a donation box set out for Mr. Hughes' 4-year-old daughter, Haylee, who woke up Tuesday morning and released balloons into the sky for her father's birthday.
Mr. Hughes' girlfriend, Dana Anderson, said he died a hero and a man, protecting her and her child.
"Happy birthday, baby," she said, after talking about how he'd been a role model and a father figure for her two young boys.
Longtime friend Chynna Shea wanted people to celebrate Mr. Hughes' life, recalling inside jokes, fond memories and meaningful interactions with him over a loudspeaker for the crowd to hear.
She marveled at the number of people in the crowd.
"This is the most amazing thing I've ever seen," Ms. Shea said. "These memories are never going to leave me. And I'm going to miss him."
Contact the writer: ksullivan@timesshamrock.com, @ksullivanTT on Twitter