Lisa Marie Presley wrote that grief and death are both equally a part of life.
Editor's note: This article was originally published on January 13, 2023. It has since been updated.
Just a few months before Lisa Marie Presley passed, she penned an impassioned essay about coping with grief in honor of National Grief Awareness Day. Since her son Benjamin Keough's death two years ago, the 54-year-old singer has been dealing with the humbling loss. He died unexpectedly when he was just 27 years old. "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," she had written for PEOPLE at the time.
Despite what those around you may tell you, she wrote, grief and death are both equally a part of life and that it is impossible to truly go on after losing a loved one. She continued by stating how isolating grief is. People who showered you with attention in the first couple of days or weeks will leave you to deal with the loss on your own. "So, if you know someone who lost a loved one, regardless of how long it's been, please call them to see how they are doing. Go visit them, they will really really appreciate it, more than you know," she wrote.
Presley continued by expressing that one "will become a pariah in a sense" if the loss was "premature, unnatural, or tragic", particularly in cases akin to hers, where the loss of a child is concerned. The singer noted that finding others who have gone through a similar situation, though, could be consoling. She added, "Nothing, absolutely NOTHING takes away the pain, but finding support can sometimes help you feel a little bit less alone."
Presley then shared that her daughters became her motivation to go on. "I keep going for my girls. I keep going because my son made it very clear in his final moments that taking care of his little sisters and looking out for them was at the forefront of his concerns and his mind. He absolutely adored them and they him," she wrote.
The singer concluded that writing the note was important to raise more awareness around grief. "I know how hard and triggering it is. But maybe let it trigger you to reach out to someone who needs it right now rather than it just triggering something bad. Written with all of my love and my pain, most sincerely ~LMP," she concluded the note.
Presley was sent to the hospital immediately on Thursday, January 12, morning due to a potential cardiac arrest. The paramedics started CPR as soon as they arrived and then moved the singer to a nearby hospital for "immediate medical care" after observing "signs of life", a representative for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department confirmed to PEOPLE. "It is with a heavy heart that I must share the devastating news that my beautiful daughter Lisa Marie has left us," Priscilla, Presley's mother, confirmed her passing in a statement to PEOPLE on Thursday evening.
References:
https://people.com/music/lisa-marie-presley-was-destroyed-by-son-benjamins-death-grief-essay/
https://people.com/music/lisa-marie-presley-dead-at-54/
Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by Jason Merritt
