Lisa Marie Presley kept son's body on ice for 2 months after his death, memoir reveals: 'I got so used to him'

"There is no law in the state of California that you have to bury someone immediately," Presley wrote in her posthumous memoir.

Lisa Marie Presley's posthumous memoir is a reminder that grief works in mysterious ways.

In From Here to the Great Unknown, a collaborative effort from the late singer and her daughter Riley Keough, Presley opens up about grieving her son, Benjamin Keough, who died by suicide in 2020. In the wake of that loss, Presley decided that rather than leaving her son's body at the morgue or burying it, she would keep it nearby, in "a separate casitas bedroom" in the family's Los Angeles home.

"They told us that if we could tend to the body, we could have him at home," Riley writes in her section of the book. "So [Presley] kept him in our house for a while on dry ice."

She adds that it was "really important" for her mother to have "ample time to say goodbye" to her son — just as she did before burying her father, Elvis Presley, who died in 1977, when she was 9.

Presley acknowledges this as well, explaining that she kept her son's body on ice for two months.

"There is no law in the state of California that you have to bury someone immediately," she writes. "I found a very empathic funeral home owner. I told her that having my dad in the house after he died was incredibly helpful because I could go and spend time with him and talk to him. She said, 'We'll bring Ben Ben to you. You can have him there.'"

Related: Riley Keough recalls finding mom Lisa Marie Presley crying on the floor listening to Elvis Presley's music

To keep the body in the house, Presley writes that she had to keep the room at 55 degrees. Aside from saying her goodbyes, it allowed her extra time to decide where to bury her son — in Hawaii, where he grew up, or at Graceland in Memphis.

"That was part of why it took so long," she explains. "But I got so used to him, caring for him and keeping him there. I think it would scare the living f---ing piss out of anybody else to have their son there like that. But not me."

Presley adds that she felt grateful for the extended grieving period, as it was "a way that I could still parent him" as she came to terms with "laying him to rest."

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During that stretch of time, Riley writes that she and her mother decided to get tattoos to honor Benjamin — in the style of tattoos he had previously gotten of Riley and Lisa's names on his collarbone and hand. Once they found the right tattoo artist, Presley adamantly explained that she wanted hers in the exact same place and position as her son's, prompting the artist to ask for pictures. Instead, Presley offered to show him the tattoo itself.

"I looked at my mom, and with my eyes only, I communicated, 'Are you out of your f---ing mind? You've never met this guy before. Do not bring him into that room with my dead brother,'" Riley writes. "I knew she understood my look, but she plowed ahead."

She continues, "I've had an extremely absurd life, but this moment is in the top five. The tattooist agreed to go in there with us, bless him, and my mom led us into the casitas, opened the casket, and, in the most matter-of-fact way imaginable, proceeded to grab my brother's hand and point out the tattoo, discuss its positioning, show the tattooist where she wanted it on her hand. I stood there aghast, watching him try to engage in the conversation and pretend this was fine."

Soon after, the family decided it was finally time to bury Benjamin.

"We all kind of got this vibe from my brother that he didn't want his body in this house anymore," Riley writes. "'Guys,' he seemed to be saying, 'this is getting weird.' Even my mom said that she could feel him talking to her, saying, 'This is insane, Mom, what are you doing? What the f---!'"

Related: Riley Keough gives Oprah first in-depth interview since mother Lisa Marie Presley's 2023 death

Presley ultimately decided to bury her son at Graceland, with his grandfather Elvis, and the family held a funeral service for him in Malibu. Riley describes it as "the most brutalizing day of my life."

She writes, "The service was as beautiful as it could have been, filled with everything Ben loved… But as beautiful as it all was, I found myself needing to close my eyes simply to be able to bear it. When I'd open them, I could barely see through tears."

Three years after her son's death, Presley was hospitalized following an apparent cardiac arrest. She died hours later, at 54. An autopsy determined that her death was due to complications of a small bowel obstruction, a long-term complication from bariatric surgery.

One year later, Riley announced plans to fulfill a promise to her mother by completing her long-gestating memoir. The book was released Tuesday.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.