Lisa Marie Presley found herself in a harrowing situation that every mother dreads when her 27-year-old son, Ben Keough, died by suicide in July 2020.
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00:00Lisa Marie Presley found herself in a harrowing situation that every mother dreads, when her
00:0627-year-old son, Ben Keogh, died by suicide in July 2020. Lisa Marie, who died in 2023,
00:13wrote an essay about Ben for People magazine for Grief Awareness Day in August 2022. She
00:19revealed,
00:20"'I've had more than anyone's fair share of it in my lifetime, but this one, the death
00:24of my beautiful, beautiful son, the sweetest and most incredible being that I have ever
00:29had the privilege of knowing, who made me feel so honored every single day to be his
00:34mother, no, just no.'"
00:36Lisa Marie also made a heartbreaking decision immediately after Ben's death, as revealed
00:41in her new memoir, Here to the Great Unknown, co-written with her daughter, Riley Keogh.
00:46She just wanted to share her experience and hope that people connected."
00:51That experience included an unorthodox detail. Lisa Marie didn't immediately lay Ben's body
00:56to rest after he died. She instead used dry ice to preserve him at home for two months.
01:02She explained her decision in her memoir before recalling the similar measures taken after
01:06the death of her father, Elvis Presley. Lisa Marie wrote,
01:10"'There is no law in the state of California that you have to bury someone immediately.
01:15Having my dad in the house after he died was incredibly helpful because I could go and
01:19spend time with him and talk to him.'"
01:21Lisa Marie used the time to delay their inevitable farewell and come to terms with the fact that
01:26she would eventually have to bury him. Although Lisa Marie's decision may have been therapeutic,
01:31her daughter Riley wrote extensively about the signs that Ben wasn't happy with the arrangement,
01:36revealing,
01:37"'We all got this vibe from my brother that he didn't want his body in this house anymore.
01:41Guys,' he seemed to be saying, "'This is getting weird.'"
01:44Riley also revealed that Lisa Marie eventually arrived at a similar thought process after
01:49getting her own signals from Ben that it was time to let him go.
01:52Elsewhere in the book, Riley revealed that Ben's funeral was tough for her as well, writing,
01:57"'The service was as beautiful as it could have been, but as beautiful as it all was,
02:01I found myself needing to close my eyes simply to be able to bear it. When I'd open them,
02:06I could barely see through tears.'"
02:08Before burying Ben, Lisa Marie persuaded Riley into getting tattoos matching some of Ben's
02:13existing ink. She took another unorthodox approach, allowing their chosen tattoo artist
02:18to inspect Ben's body, a decision Riley didn't agree with, writing,
02:22"'I looked at my mom, and with my eyes only, I communicated,
02:26"'Are you out of your f----- mind? You've never met this guy. Do not bring him into
02:30that room with my dead brother.'"
02:32However, Lisa Marie plowed ahead, leading to an uncomfortable moment for the artist.
02:37Riley wrote,
02:38"'I stood there aghast, watching him try to engage in the conversation and pretend
02:42this was fine.'"
02:43Despite the heavy, tragic nature of these surprising revelations, Riley revealed during
02:48an interview with Oprah Winfrey that her mother's memoir also covered a range of emotions
02:52outside of pain and loss.
02:54"'I think that reading the book, it does feel like a tragedy. But I think that it's really
02:58important for me to remember that there was so much joy and love and just wonderful times
03:03in our lives.'"
03:04"'I think that it taught me that we were, like, you know, very close. There wasn't much
03:11in the book that I didn't know.'"