Riley Keough, who is Elvis Presley‘s granddaughter and Lisa Marie Presley‘s daughter, reflected on how she has dealt with her grief one year after brother Benjamin Keough died at age 27.
“I’m really consciously trying to be present, and not use anything as any kind of escape, and be cognizant of when I’m doing that,” the Zola actress told InStyle in a new interview.
“I’m just generally trying to be grateful for everything at the moment, trying to operate in love, and keep my heart open, and give and receive love,” the 32-year-old expressed. “And not in a woo-woo way, because I definitely have hard days, and all kinds of pain and suffering and all that.”
“But I think when you realize that’s part of it, and your expectation isn’t to just be feeling joy, that’s been a real shift for me in finding those moments and things to smile about,” she concluded.
Previously, Keough shared on social media some of the ways that she was processing the tragedy. The Mad Max: Fury Road star honored her brother by getting his name tattooed on her collarbone in July 2020. And she also announced on Instagram that she had become a death doula.
Instagram“We are taught that [death is] a morbid subject to talk about,” she said in her post. “Or [we’re] 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.”
“I think it’s so important to be educated on conscious dying and death the way we educate ourselves on birth and conscious birthing,” Keough explained. “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.”
