I was literally just there. I don’t know why, because I should have anticipated it, but I was somehow not prepared to see Benjamin’s big stone grave, added to the meditation garden, directly across the little pool from his grandfather’s grave. There were fresh flowers on top, blazing bright in the cold grey morning. I knew Benjamin was there, but I had forgotten. It just stopped me in my tracks.
I felt this weird piercing pain when I saw Benjamin’s tomb. Grief was tangible in the air. It’s not my grief – it’s not my family – and so this is not about my feelings, but the place itself resonated with loss and pain, in a way that felt fresh and new. There are no words.
from “Lights Out” by Lisa Marie Presley
You were a million miles behind
And I was crying every time I’d leave you
Then I didn’t want to see you
I still keep my watch two hours behind.
Someone turned the lights out there in Memphis
Ooh, that’s where my family’s buried and gone
Last time I was there I noticed a space left
Next to them there in Memphis
In the damn back lawn
“I still keep my watch two hours behind” is such a good line.
There’s always been a space in the family plot for Lisa Marie. A patch of grass beside the others. I just can’t believe she would need it so soon.
Thinking about you from the second I heard last night.
that’s so kind of you. I’m just so shocked – even though bad hearts run in the family and hers has been under unimaginable stress in the last two years.
even besides the EP factor, she was just huge to my generation – or at least to some members of it – who also loved her dad (who was, of course, an “oldie” by the time we came around) – she was this mysterious tough chick figure – with eyes just like her dad’s – and we weren’t around for HIS success but we were somehow invested in hers. It’s hard to explain. she was uncontrollable – and weird and edgy – and in retrospect it had a big effect growing up alongside someone like that. Nobody else like her – how could there be. Who else grew up like that? With a grave set aside for her outside her bedroom window?
So sad for her family, her mother, her kids.
Thought about you too, Sheila when I heard. I thought, ‘Oh God, what’s Sheila gonna say about this?’ What you said was perfect, as per usual. I was pretty shocked myself even though I wasn’t a big fan of Lisa Marie … she was so young! I think the horror of her son dying was the beginning of the end. RIP and hope she’s having a good ol’ time with her Dad in heaven.
She posted a picture on Instagram with Austin Butler – the two of them sitting on the big couch in the jungle room at Graceland – and their body language is intimate, and they’re both laughing – she posted it saying “this is the first time I’ve laughed in two years.”
Grief is physical. She’s had more than her fair share. Her family has a history of bad hearts. Maybe there was something undiagnosed there – but the stress of losing a child … What was so amazing and touching to me is that she came out of seclusion to promote the Elvis movie – she came to the premiere, she submitted to the rigors of the PR cycle – all because this movie meant a lot to her. It spoke volumes. She just gave a speech at Graceland a week ago on her dad’s birthday – greeting the fans – which she hasn’t done in a couple of years. I am sure this took a tremendous toll – but again it was meaningful that she chose to do it.
This past week she had no downtime. She was in the public eye every day. Huge gala events, parties, red carpets. Too much for her.
Such a tragedy.