Emotional words, tears of remembrance and purple glow sticks filled the air at the Pedro “Javi” Roman candlelight vigil on Thursday.
The crowd of hundreds of friends, fellow Valencia High School students and community members gathered in Central Park on Thursday to celebrate the life of Pedro, who died earlier this week at the age of 17 following a recent relapse of his cancer.
Before the vigil had even begun, students clad in purple and gold began filing into the park some hugging one another, others standing side by side in silence, waiting for the familiar voices of their teammates and classmates to begin speaking about Roman.