It’s been six days since Lisa Marie Presley, the only child of the late great Elvis Presley, died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 54. Now, one of Lisa Marie’s closest friends is speaking out to say that she was looking to the future just a few days before her untimely passing. 

Lisa Marie Had Things She Still Wanted To Do

On January 8, four days before she died, Lisa Marie was at her family’s Graceland estate in Memphis, Tennessee to celebrate what would have been her father’s 88th birthday. There, she shared a private moment with her longtime close friend David Kessler in the property’s Meditation Garden, where her father and her son Benjamin are buried. 

“We sat there mostly in silence by Ben’s grave. She showed me where she’d be buried someday, right across from her father’s grave,” Kessler told People Magazine.

“I said, ‘Not for a long time,’ and she was like, ‘Nope, I got a lot to do still,'” he continued. “She was very excited about what was coming up. She had such a challenging first and second act of life, and she was about to take on this third act that was so much about helping people.”

Related: Sad Details Emerge About Death Of Lisa Marie Presley After She Dies At 54

‘She Was Focused On You’

Kessler is an author and grief expert who became close to Lisa Marie after her son Benjamin tragically committed suicide back in 2020 at the age of 27. In the two and a half years since her son’s death, Lisa Marie often co-lead grief support groups with Kessler, sometimes even hosting the gatherings at her own home.

“She had x-ray vision for other people’s pain,” he said. “When you were in her gaze, no one else existed. She was focused on you. She talked about turning her pain into purpose.”

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Kessler went on to say that during Lisa Marie’s final visit to Graceland, “she sat down with [a newly bereaved mother] for two to three hours and told her what to expect on this journey.”

“I just sat there watching how far she had come in her own pain,” he added. “Her heart was still broken around Ben, but her heart was also healing around Ben.”

Though Benjamin’s death was devastating for Lisa Marie, she was determined to stay strong for her three surviving daughters: 33 year-old Riley Keough, and 14 year-old twins Finley and Harper Lockwood.

“With Riley and her [younger] girls, she was a lioness,” Kessler explained. “It was amazing to see her with her family.”

Related: Inside The ‘Incredibly Sad’ Final Days Of Lisa Marie Presley Before She Died At 54

Lisa Marie Passes Away

Sadly, just a few days later on the morning of January 12, Lisa Marie was found unresponsive by a housekeeper at her home in Calabasas, California. Paramedics did their best to save her, but she went into cardiac arrest multiple times, and died at the hospital.

This came 45 years after her father died of a heart attack at the age of 42. His own mother had died of a heart attack at the age of 46 in the 1950s. 

A public memorial service for Lisa Marie will be taking place at Graceland this Sunday. She will then be laid to rest on the property next to her father and son. Now that Lisa Marie has passed on, Graceland will be left to her three daughters.

“It is absolutely 100 percent mine, and it has always been mine,” she said of Graceland back in 2013. “And when it is no longer mine, it will be my children’s. And that is that.”

Related: Here’s What Will Happen To Graceland After Lisa Marie Presley Dies At 54

Though it’s incredibly sad that Lisa Marie was taken from us at such a young age, we can all find comfort in knowing that she is in Heaven with Elvis and Benjamin now. Please join us in saying a prayer for her family during this difficult time. 

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