Thank you all for coming to celebrate the life lived by our beloved Holden, our family is greatly comforted by the support from throughout the community and beyond. For those of you who do not know me, my name is Phoebe Caulfield and I was blessed to be brought into this world with a brother like Holden. He taught me how to be responsible, to be vulnerable and share my true emotions, and most of all he taught me how to be a better daughter, sister, and friend, and so it brings me deep sadness to be standing here reminiscing on the life of our dear Holden Caulfield. It is too soon to see yet another member of our family leaving us just as they were beginning their lives, but it gives me peace to know that Holden is reunited with his best friend…show more content… As he lived his life following his truth, Holden fixated on a question that resonates with us all: What makes life worth living? For Holden, the beauty of life is found in the moments of genuine connection and raw emotion, whether this be with his friends, his family, or even individually. He also cherished the innocence of childhood, and fought to protect me from what he thought was the inevitable corruption of adulthood. I remember a day, when Holden took me out of school and we met at the museum. That day he took me to the Central Park Zoo, and we spent hours wandering around, just soaking in the quiet and the familiarity of it all. It was like a sanctuary for him, away from the phoniness of the outside world. But even in those peaceful moments, Holden’s life still comes with its own set of struggles. He dealt with loneliness, grief, confusion on beliefs such as religion, constant change in his life, and the ongoing sense that he was an outsider. However, even in his darkest and most lonely moments, Holden stayed true to himself and what he believed in, reminding us all to never let our values conform to ever changing norms and trends of
