Lisa Marie Presley on Unrelenting Grief and 'Blaming Myself Every Single Day' Since Son Benjamin's Death

etonline.com:

Lisa Marie Presley is opening up about the raw realities of her experience with grief. Two years after her son, Benjamin Keough, died by suicide at 27 years old, Lisa Marie has penned an essay in honor of National Grief Awareness day in the hopes of helping others who may be going through a similar experience. «I can understand why people may want to avoid you once a terrible tragedy has struck.

Especially a parent losing their child because it is truly your worst nightmare,» she writes in a first-person essay published by . «I can recall a couple of times in my life where I knew parents who lost their child and while I could be there for them when it happened, I avoided them after and never bothered to follow up with them because they quite literally became a representative of my biggest fear.

I also low-key judged them, and I swore I'd never do whatever it was that I felt they either did or neglected in their parental actions and choices with their child.»Lisa Marie notes that she's seen experienced «more than anyone's fair share» of grief and death in her lifetime, beginning with the death of her father, Elvis Presley, when she was only nine years old.

She also comments on how her «beautiful, beautiful son» was «so much like his grandfather on so many levels that he actually scared me.» She urges readers to understand that grief doesn't diminish over time, calling the experience «lonely» as well-meaning friends and family often fade away in the months following a tragedy.