Eight months after the heartbreaking loss of her only brother, Benjamin Keough, at 27, actress Riley Keough is working to help others make their peace with death.
“Today I finished my Death Doula training, on The Art of Death Midwifery training course by @sacred_crossings so I guess I’m an almost certified death doula now hehe??✨✨✨✨,” the “Mad Max: Fury Road” actress, who’s the daughter of Elvis Presley’s only child, Lisa Marie Presley, wrote on Instagram late on March 21.
“And I just felt like writing such a deep thank you to this community who are teaching and training people in conscious dying and death work,” she continued. “We are taught that its a morbid subject to talk about. Or were so afraid of it that we’re unable to talk about it… then of course it happens to us, and we are very ill prepared.”
Riley went on, “I think it’s so important to be educated on conscious dying and death the way we educate ourselves on birth and conscious birthing. We prepare ourselves so rigorously for the entrance and have no preparation for our exit.
“So I’m so grateful for this community and to be able to contribute what I can. Thank you Olivia @sacred_crossings ????✨ ❤️ ??,” she concluded.
Ben, whose father is Lisa Marie’s first husband, musician Danny Keough, died on July 12, 2020, at his mother’s home in Calabasas, California. Lisa Marie was not there at the time.
Days later, grandmother Priscilla Presley took to Facebook to publicly mourn, writing, “These are some of the darkest days of my family’s life. The shock of losing Ben has been devastating. Trying to put all the pieces together of all the possible whys has penetrated my soul. Each day I wake up I pray it will get better.”
She continued, “Then, I think of my daughter and the pain she is going through as she was a doting mother. Ben’s father, Danny, who is completely lost, as Ben was his only son.” Priscila also shared her grief for Ben’s siblings, Riley and half-sisters Harper and Finley Lockwood, and uncle Navarone Garibaldi, the son Priscilla welcomed with now-ex Marco Garibaldi. “Riley, so loving and so close to him; Harper and Finley, who absolutely adored Ben. Navarone, who struggles deeply with loss and death. Rest In Peace Ben, you were loved. ❤️,” she added.
