La Bella Vita

Who doesn’t know who Elvis Presley was? He’s one of the biggest music icons of our parents’ generation and years after his passing, we still saw images of him flash across our screens talking about his contribution to the music industry and even movie hence why years after his passing, we still know who he was to the world. This is the epitome of leaving behind a legacy.

One of the iconic pictures of Elvis, Priscilla and Lisa Marie Presley when she was born in 1968. What a beautiful moment for the family. 🙂 Lisa Marie Presley grew up as the Princess of Rock & Roll and lived up to the name. It was said that Elvis would spoil her and Mom, Priscilla was strict with her . Lisa Marie had a challenging life because her father, Elvis and Mom divorced when she was only 4 years old and had to grow up living between Graceland, Memphis with her Dad and LA with her Mom. In 1977, when Lisa Marie was only 9 years old, her beloved father Elvis passed away.

Her life continue on with many other challenges of finding love, herself and it sure didn’t get easier when her son Benjamin Keough took his own life back in 2020 when he was only 27 years old. Imagine how tough that must have been for her to deal with the huge loss. She wrote a heartfelt essay about Grief for People’s Magazine that was published on Aug, 30th 2022 just months ago.

This is part of the snippet of what she wrote. Those that are mourning the loss of a loved one including myself can relate to what she wrote and it doesn’t get more raw than this.

“Today is “National Grief Awareness Day,” and since I have been living in the horrific reality of its unrelenting grips since my son’s death two years ago, I thought I would share a few things to be aware of in regard to grief for anyone who is interested. If not to help yourself but maybe to help another who is grieving …

This is not a comfortable subject for anyone, and it is most unpopular to talk about. This is quite long, potentially triggering and very hard to confront. But if we’re going make any progress on the subject, grief has to get talked about. I’m sharing my thoughts in the hopes that somehow, we can change that.

Death is part of life whether we like it or not — and so is grieving. There is so much to learn and understand on the subject, but here’s what I know so far: One is that grief does not stop or go away in any sense, a year, or years after the loss. Grief is something you will have to carry with you for the rest of your life, in spite of what certain people or our culture wants us to believe. You do not “get over it,” you do not “move on,” period.

Two, grief is incredibly lonely. Despite people coming in the heat of the moment to be there for you right after the loss takes place, they soon disappear and go on with their own lives and they kind of expect for you to do the same, especially after some time has passed. This includes “family” as well. If you’re incredibly lucky, less than a handful will remain in contact with you after the first month or so. Unfortunately, that is a cold hard truth for most. So, if you know someone who lost a loved one, regardless of how long it’s been, please call them to see how they are doing. Go visit them. They will really really appreciate it, more than you know …”

Please visit the link to read the full article and essay:

Sadly, Lisa Marie Presley passed on Jan 12th 2023 from cardiac arrest. When I saw the news, it broke my heart as my thoughts went straight to the family and the fact that Priscilla Presley has dealt with so much heartbreak and loss over her lifetime and she never remarried after Elvis and her divorced and eventually passed away. She stayed in love with him even until this very day. That’s one great true undying love. She has my upmost respect just like my grandma who is now 97 years old and remained single along with my own friend Joe, that lost her husband in 2021.

XoXo, VA