Good Night Sweet Prince of the City
IKIMULISA SOCKWELL-MASON
NY Post Online
December 4, 2001 -- Fallen firefighter Christopher Mozzillo was remembered yesterday as an adventure-seeking jokester - a "sweet prince" taken from his loved ones too soon.
He was a motorcycle-riding, scuba-diving gourmet cook, friends said - and he was just 27 when he died a hero at the World Trade Center.
Mayor Giuliani, who joined the hundreds of mourners at St. Charles Church on Staten Island, noted that Mozzillo's father is a retired firefighter.
"Chris carried on a family tradition," Giuliani said. "Like his dad, he was driven to save lives and to protect people."
Giuliani said Mozzillo and the other firefighters lost in the tragedy displayed spirit and courage that has "inspired the entire country."
Mozzillo's sister, Pam, talked about how protective her brother had been when they were growing up.
"He'd beat up anyone who'd say anything bad to me," she said, drawing laughter from the congregation.
And he was also the person who inspired her to study and play with equal intensity, she said, adding, "You're my hero for life."
Longtime friend Mike Graulich spoke about Mozzillo's unusual wedding gift.
"It was a beer mug with his name on it, so he could have something to drink out of at my house," he said with a smile.
Mozzillo's father, Mike, asked the Rev. Robert Gannon to read his eulogy.
"Chris lived 27 years, four months and three days," Gannon read. "He crammed more in his life than most of us will, even if we live to be 100.
"He worked hard and he played harder."
Gannon described how Mozzillo - whose body has not been recovered - skied in the winter, went scuba diving in the summer and even fed the sharks.
"He always made me proud," Gannon said, reading Mike Mozzillo's words - and then closed with a quote from Shakespeare's Hamlet.
"Goodnight, sweet prince. And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest."
A few miles away, at Our Lady Queen of Peace Church, loved ones said farewell to firefighter Joseph Maffeo, 30, who leaves a wife and year-old son.
A childhood friend recalled the days when he and Maffeo were part of a trio known as the Three Musketeers.
One of Maffeo's four older sisters also spoke - telling the mourners how her younger brother grew up with five "mothers" looking out for him.
| 
