'NOTHING takes away the pain': Lisa Marie Presley pens heartbreaking essay to late son Benjamin Keough
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA: Elvis and Priscilla Presley's daughter, Lisa Marie Presley penned an emotional essay on the occasion of National Grief Awareness Day on August 30. In it, she remembers her son, Benjamin Keough who died by suicide in 2020. He was 27 at the time.
Talking about her grief and life after the passing of her son, Lisa reveals that she keeps going "for my girls." Notably, the 54-year-old has three daughters, Riley Keough and 13-year-old twins, Finley Aaron Love and Harper Vivienne Anne, whom she shares with Michael Lockwood. Benjamin was her son with her first husband, Danny Keough.
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The only child of the King of Rock and Roll, Lisa has spoken out rather candidly about her son's suicide in her new essay published on People. Last month, July 27, 2022 marked the two-year anniversary of Keough's death by his own hands.
"Today is 'National Grief Awareness Day', and since I have been living in the horrific reality of its unrelenting grips since my son's death two years ago, I thought I would share a few things to be aware of in regard to grief for anyone who is interested. If not to help yourself but maybe to help another who is grieving …" she begins.
In her heartbreaking tribute, she focuses on the importance of sharing one's grief and the seeming taboo around a topic as sensitive as suicide. Thus. she writes, "grief has to get talked about" as it is part of one's life similar to death. She then goes on to write about all that she has learned in the period following her son's death. For one, grief is not something that fades with time. "You do not 'get over it', you do not 'move on', period," she adds.
The second thing she learned, she says, is the loneliness that accompanies grief. The final aspect of dealing with grief is in case the loss was an untimely one. "You can feel stigmatized and perhaps judged in some way as to why the tragic loss took place. This becomes magnetized by a million if you are the parent of a child who passed," adding that such grief brings along the judgment of people irrespective of the circumstances surrounding the death.
While "Nothing, absolutely NOTHING takes away the pain," people can find comfort in the support they receive. Such companionship can only be found among people who have gone through similar ordeals. So, not only does she attend support groups but also holds them at her home for similarly bereaved parents. Her heartache over the loss of her son is evident when she describes him as the "sweetest and most incredible being that I have ever had the privilege of knowing, who made me feel so honored every single day to be his mother," adding that he was "so much like his grandfather on so many levels that he actually scared me."
Now, says Lisa, "My and my three daughters' lives as we knew it were completely detonated and destroyed by his death. We live in this every. Single. Day." The mother-of-four hopes that her essay, on the occasion of 'National Grief Awareness Day' can help "raise some awareness on grief and loss." She encourages people to reach out to those who have suffered great loss and listen to them talk about the person they lost because "We DO want to talk about them. That's how we keep them alive in our hearts, that's how they don't get forgotten, that is what keeps us alive as well."
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Hotline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).