\n<\/p>\n
https:\/\/instagram.com\/p\/BmTj0-OnDXa<\/a> <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
With the release of Lisa Marie Presley\u2019s posthumous memoir From Here to the Great Unknown in paperback, I thought it would be interesting to compare Lisa Marie\u2019s with her mother Priscilla’s book Softly As I Leave You, released this year. While there’s obviously differences of perception, the contrast is sometimes quite large. Priscilla’s book would even at times appear to be direct responses to accusations made by Lisa Marie and Riley in their book.<\/p>\n
In this installment (part one here<\/a>, part two<\/a>, part three<\/a>, part four<\/a>), we’re comparing recollections involving Lisa’s going into therapy, her final days, becoming a grandmother and her sudden death.<\/p>\n
TRIGGER WARNING FOR TALK OF ADDICTION, DISTURBING AND FRANK SUBJECT MATTER AND DEATH.<\/b><\/p>\n
All excerpts are from each respective book and are being used for educational purposes only. I only quote relevant portions and do not include every variation of recollection. If you want the full stories, please read the books.<\/p>\n
Quotes from articles and other sources are used for accuracy purposes since perceptions greatly vary at this point. <\/p>\n
Sorry for the delay if you care, real life took over- let’s begin!<\/p>\n
Lisa Going to Therapy<\/u><\/b> <\/p>\nLisa: <\/p>\n
When I started talking to a therapist, it was really nice to hear somebody talk back and say, \u201cHey, you\u2019re not fucked up,\u201d or \u201cYou need to stop shooting yourself in the foot.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
I also attended group therapy and initially I really resisted it. But eventually I started getting close to people. I realized that they were all as fucked up as me.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
In a 2018 interview with Today, Lisa said she’d come a long way in her journey to sobriety, crediting her four children and her late father, Elvis Presley, for helping her get through some of her darkest times: <\/p>\n
“I am proud. I have a therapist, and she was like, ‘You’re a miracle, you really are…I don’t know how you’re still alive.'”<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Riley: <\/p>\n
More and more she became set on helping people somehow, especially grieving parents. The act of helping was the only way she could feel any relief. She wanted to help others so she could help herself. She would have groups of parents who had also lost children over to her house on Sundays. She would put out little sandwiches, and she and her grief counselor would run grief groups. She wrote an op-ed about grief, the first time she had ever written anything like that. She was planning to do a podcast about grief as a way of finding purpose\u2014she desperately wanted to connect with people who had this shared experience. Nothing else inspired her.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
[Riley would also say on her book tour that her mother and father moved in together with the twins after their son’s death and did grief support groups which consumed their time]<\/p>\n
Lisa Marie\u2019s grief counselor, David Kessler, in Rolling Stone magazine:<\/p>\n
Weeks after [Benjamin\u2019s] passing, she was put in touch with Kessler \u2014 but insisted on grieving on her own terms. \u201cShe didn\u2019t want someone who\u2019d studied grief academically and would tell her what she should be doing,\u201d he says. \u201cShe said, \u2018I don\u2019t want a therapist, I don\u2019t need a grief counselor. If you want to be friends, I\u2019m open to that.\u2019 \u201d With his help, she began attending online sessions with other bereaved parents, who mostly didn\u2019t recognize her, and eventually hosted some in her home. Besides her son, other family members would sometimes come up.
<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\nPriscilla: <\/p>\n
She no longer had the release of the auditing sessions that Scientology had once provided for her. Though she had left the church, she retained some of its beliefs, including a distrust of psychologists. She was still opposed to therapy, which would have given her a potential outlet for her feelings. It was near the end of this period that she began recording the tapes that would be transposed and edited for her autobiography. It was a way for her to feel that she had a voice and to release some of the fear, anger, and despair that enveloped her. <\/i><\/p>\n
The pain began to pour out of her onto audiotapes in a mixture of memories and nightmares, of what had happened and what she believed had happened.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
https:\/\/instagram.com\/p\/DA5fRqvuxOr<\/a> <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Riley Becomes a Mother, and Lisa a Grandmother:<\/u><\/b><\/p>\n
Priscilla:<\/p>\n
“I love her babies,” says Priscilla. “I’m really happy for Riley. She’s got an amazing husband and two great children, so I’m happy for her very much.”<\/i><\/p>\n
Asked about Tupelo, Priscilla calls her “so cute.” She says she was talking even before her first birthday.<\/p>\n
“At my home, there’s a pond right down below, and I’m holding her, and she goes, ‘Pond,’ ” Priscilla recalls. “She’s not even a year going, ‘Pond.’ Then she looked, and she saw a car. I went to Lisa, and I said, ‘Lisa, she’s not even a year, and she’s telling me all what’s out there.’ [Riley] was saying that her husband really spends a lot of time with her. She’s a chatterbox.”<\/p>\n
Priscilla adds that Tupelo sweetly “lives in her own world.”<\/p>\n
“She does what she wants,” she says. “She rules.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Riley:<\/p>\n
Her father called her Yisa. He would replace all the l\u2019s with y\u2019s when he spoke to my mom.<\/i><\/p>\n
The other night I was rocking my daughter, Tupelo, to sleep, and I found myself calling her \u201cyitty-bitty\u201d and singing to her, Momma\u2019s little baby loves shortnin\u2019, shortnin\u2019<\/i>, and I stopped and thought, I literally haven\u2019t heard this song since I was a baby<\/i>. And I realized in that moment that all of these phrases I use, and the things I say to my daughter, are the ways my mom spoke to me. She had gotten them directly from her dad. From the South. And all of them are alive in me. I can hear her saying, \u201cGet over here, goddamn it, and give me some sugar!\u201d She mothers my daughter through me.<\/p>\n
[…] My mom instantly became obsessed with Tupelo\u2014she felt she had a special connection with her, so she\u2019d come over to my house in Silver Lake and take her away to be alone with her. I\u2019d watch through the window as they\u2019d go off to sit in the garden\u2014my mom would call it her fairy garden, just as I had called our garden in Hidden Hills a fairy garden for Ben Ben when we were little. My mom bought swing sets and toys that filled her own house so that Tupelo could sleep over.<\/p>\n
[…] She looked at Tupelo and the first thing she said was, \u201cBen Ben brought me to you.\u201d<\/p>\n
When we came home from the hospital, my mom and dad would do the eight p.m. to one a.m. shift together so Ben and I could get some sleep.<\/p>\n
They were a few brief months of joy, filled with the new little blessing in our lives. My mom would call Tupelo \u201cour little light,\u201d would look in her eyes and say, \u201cBless her sweet little feisty heart. She\u2019s like a fairy-tale creature\u2014a little fawn.\u201d<\/p>\n
[…] my mom and I snuck off to a spot next to the nonsmoking hotel restaurant, and giggling like teenagers hiding from their parents, we lit up. I had quit smoking years ago, but I wanted to have this cigarette with my mom. Eventually my dad came around the corner and lit a cigarette, too.<\/p>\n
[…] As we smoked, my mother said, \u201cUgh, that baby\u2014I\u00a0can\u2019t handle her! She fills me up and knocks me dead.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know, sweet Sawny,\u201d my dad said. (My mom\u2019s word \u201cfawn\u201d had become Sawn had become Sawny in our silly shared language.)<\/p>\n
There, in that moment, I found myself feeling so grateful that I still had both my parents. I didn\u2019t take it for granted<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Lisa Marie\u2019s Deteriorating Health After Benjamin\u2019s Suicide<\/u><\/b> <\/p>\n
Priscilla: <\/p>\n
Our family was still awash in grief and sorrow. Benjamin\u2019s loss remained raw, and Lisa had withdrawn into a very dark place. Michael was afraid she would relapse under the strain of Ben\u2019s passing. He worried about the effect the trauma was having on the twins. He also wondered how keeping Ben\u2019s body at home had affected them. Lisa, meanwhile, was holding on to the girls for dear life. Her daughters were her only reason for living.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
https:\/\/instagram.com\/p\/Brv1VinHmrA<\/a> <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Riley: <\/p>\n
Though she was fighting to keep it together for my sisters, my mom\u2019s health was deteriorating\u2014she had started to say that her stomach was always bothering her. She would have spells of fevers. She was trying to stay inspired and hold on to hope, but underneath everything, there seemed to be a heartbreak that was only growing. And despite my constant scheduling of appointments, she would never see a doctor.<\/i><\/p>\n
In 2022 she got an infection and later had to have her uterus removed. It was incredibly hard for her.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt held all my babies,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
One day in October that year, we all went to Disneyland. As we were about to get on a ride she sat down on some stairs and said she didn\u2019t feel well, that she was really nauseated. Again, I urged her to go to the doctor, and again, I got no response.<\/p>\n
On top of her feeling unwell at Disneyland, there was a strange energy at the end of 2022. Unusual things kept happening with her health.
Things started cascading. She would constantly complain about her stomach, about feeling nauseated. She would drink lots of Pepto-Bismol, which was always by her bed. I could tell my sisters were worried, too\u2014they\u2019d often ask me, \u201cIs Mama going to be okay?\u201d I would say yes, but I didn\u2019t believe it. I think maybe my sisters knew, too.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nDavid Kessler:<\/p>\n
According to Kessler, she had also complained about stomach pain in the weeks before her death.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Jerry Schilling, Elvis Presley\u2019s best friend:<\/p>\n
[…] [Lisa Marie] and Schilling flew to Memphis for an advanced screening of Elvis. Schilling thinks he hadn\u2019t seen her since Ben\u2019s funeral, two years before. \u201cAt the airport, she said to me, \u2018I\u2019m not the same and I never will be,\u2019 \u201d Schilling says. \u201cYou could see the stress she\u2019d been through. But she was trying her best.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Priscilla:<\/p>\n
Among other things, [the Elvis film] had been good for our relationship. She had been resentful toward me since the custody dispute. I understood that her anger made perfect sense to her and that there was nothing I could do about it.<\/i><\/p>\n
I was a little worried about her as well. When we had talked over the last couple of months, she would sometimes mention that she had pain in her stomach. She said she didn\u2019t know why. What she wasn\u2019t telling me, perhaps because she didn\u2019t recognize its relevance, was that she\u2019d had a gastric bypass a couple of years before. I wasn\u2019t sure when. <\/p>\n
At the time of the bypass, she had just told me she was having \u201ca little cosmetic surgery.\u201d Because she did have these procedures now and then, I hadn\u2019t thought much about it this time. But Lisa wasn\u2019t one to complain to me about physical ailments, so it rang a warning bell when she mentioned recurrent pain. I told her she needed to see a doctor, and she promised she would. Of course, she didn\u2019t, and I eventually learned she was also ignoring Riley\u2019s suggestions that she see a physician. <\/p>\n
Her failure to follow through was frustrating and worrisome, but Lisa wasn\u2019t a child anymore. When she was six, I could simply put her in the car and take her to the doctor. It doesn\u2019t work that way when your child is fifty-four. It hadn\u2019t worked with her father, either.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
https:\/\/instagram.com\/p\/C4UUtpQi1vI<\/a> <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Lisa Marie\u2019s Final Days<\/u><\/b><\/p>\n
Riley:<\/p>\n
At the time I was working in Canada, so I suggested we all head to Whistler in British Columbia [for Christmas]. She loved that idea. For the next month I would send her photos of hotels and things to do there. She was really excited about it.<\/i><\/p>\n
I booked everything for her\u2014flights, hotels, things to do\u2014the bill was astronomical. But she just said, \u201cSo what? You never know when it\u2019s your last Christmas together.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the trip approached, all that was left was for her to get her passport renewed. Then, disaster\u2014despite our best efforts, the passport didn\u2019t arrive in time.<\/p>\n
As silly as it may seem, not getting to Whistler represented so much to my mother. She was desperate for a magical escape, and Whistler had come to represent an ideal, a dreamland. When it fell through, I swear something changed. She seemed resigned to something, as though she wasn\u2019t going to find the joy she once felt here anymore.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
David Kessler:<\/p>\n
Wearing a floral-pattern coat to ward off the middle-of-night chill, Presley beckoned Kessler into one of the golf carts she would regularly use to navigate Graceland\u2019s 14 acres. As her friend held on, she hit the pedal and began whipping around the paved roads that snaked through the property \u2014 so fast that Kessler, who was accustomed to golf carts that puttered along, asked if there were seat belts. \u201cNo seat belts!\u201d Kessler remembers her barking back. <\/i><\/p>\n
[…] Finally, they arrived at their destination: the Meditation Garden, the patch of ground behind Graceland that includes a circular fountain and, most prominently, the graves of Elvis, his parents, and Ben […] \u201cI\u2019ll be right there next to him someday,\u201d she said, according to Kessler, motioning to the empty space next to where Ben had been laid to rest. <\/p>\n
Not for a long time, Kessler replied. <\/p>\n
\u201cNo, no \u2014 it\u2019s going to be a long time,\u201d she told him. \u201cI really want to do things. I have a lot more to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
[…] After more than two years of seclusion, Presley was ready to reengage with the public.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Riley:<\/p>\n
[…] we had dinner in L.A. together on January\u00a08\u2014coincidentally her father\u2019s birthday\u2014just she and I, my husband, and my girlfriends, which was common. She was unusually quiet, withdrawn, in her own world. I kept trying to include her in the conversations, but she looked at me and said, \u201cI\u2019m going to go home.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
There was a sadness to her, and the same sense of resignation. I was worried.<\/p>\n
My husband and I walked her to her car. She seemed very soft, almost empty, and my mom was not a soft person.<\/p>\n
Something had left her.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Jerry Schilling:<\/p>\n
[Lisa] asked Schilling if he would accompany her two nights later on the red carpet at the Golden Globes, where Elvis was up for several awards. She told Schilling she would be coming alone, so he should keep an eye out for her.<\/i><\/p>\n
[…] What the public (including those who reached out to [friend Linda] Ramone after) saw was a woman who looked startlingly pale and seemed to have trouble walking, clinging to Schilling […] Schilling attributes her careful steps to her footwear. As soon as she arrived, he says, \u201cShe had these huge high heels and said, \u2018Oh, man, I think I\u2019ve made a mistake with these shoes. I\u2019m going to hold on to you, because these shoes are killer.\u2019 \u201d Schilling insists the evening was \u201creally uneventful,\u201d adding, \u201cLisa was as lucid as anybody there. Anybody who says different doesn\u2019t know what they\u2019re talking about.\u201d After the Globes, Presley attended a Luhrmann-thrown bash at the Chateau Marmont, staying until about midnight. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Priscilla: <\/p>\n
Before she left for Graceland, Lisa had called to see if I wanted to go to the Golden Globe Awards with her. We were both invited, and she wanted us to go together […] Lisa and I were excited about the film\u2019s nominations. <\/i><\/p>\n
Something was off with Lisa\u2019s behavior that night, too. She seemed a little out of it, and her speech was slightly slurred as if she\u2019d been drinking. At the time, I thought she might be under the influence, but in retrospect, I\u2019m not so sure […] Shortly after Austin\u2019s speech, Lisa leaned into me and whispered, \u201cMom, I need to go. My stomach hurts.\u201d […] But despite her pain, Lisa wasn\u2019t quite ready to let go of the magical evening. She told me, \u201cLet\u2019s stop at Chateau Marmont for a drink on the way home.\u201d I said okay, and we agreed to meet there. <\/p>\n
[…] By the time we met at the hotel restaurant, though, Lisa had changed her mind. She was very pale and said, \u201cMom, my stomach really hurts. I need to go home.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, sweetheart. We\u2019ll get the car.\u201d <\/p>\n
When the car was brought up, I supported her over to where the valet was holding the car door open. I gave her a hug and said, \u201cLet me know when you get home.\u201d<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t know it was the last hug. When she called to say she was safely home, I would have stayed on the line if I\u2019d known it was the last time I\u2019d hear her voice.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Sources told The Post:<\/p>\n
The friend added that mother and daughter did not even want to sit close to each other at the Golden Globes last month to celebrate the nominated movie \u201cElvis,\u201d saying: \u201cLisa didn\u2019t want to have anything to do with her mom. She was basically estranged from Priscilla for the last seven to eight years. They only talked when there was no option.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Lisa: <\/p>\n
When I tell people my stories, they tell me I\u2019m strong. But that makes me crazy because I think, What\u2019s it for, though? Throw stuff at me and I\u2019ll get through it, but for what? What does the strength matter? It doesn\u2019t matter to me.<\/i><\/p>\n
I\u2019m not strong. I am not.<\/p>\n
But I am still here. I didn\u2019t lose my mind, even though I wanted to. And I could have.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t relapse or die. Or kill myself, which are three things I thought about all day long for the first eight or nine months after Ben Ben died. I\u2019ve been vacillating between all three.<\/p>\n
But I didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
I have two little girls that I have to be a mother to. I keep my focus on that. My son was concerned about his sisters. It was his main objective. The few last-moment texts he fired off said to watch and protect his sisters. They don\u2019t know this. I won\u2019t let them know until they\u2019re older.<\/p>\n
I know Ben Ben would be infuriated with me if I died and joined him.<\/p>\n
He would be mad at me in hell or heaven, wherever we\u2019re going.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
https:\/\/instagram.com\/p\/BkRLh6Chpyc<\/a> <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Lisa Marie\u2019s Sudden Death<\/u><\/b><\/p>\n
Priscilla: <\/p>\n
Two days later, on the morning of January 12, my phone rang early in the day. It was Danny.<\/i><\/p>\n
Danny said, \u201cNona, Lisa\u2019s unwell. You need to come.”<\/p>\n
Swallowing my panic, I asked Danny what had happened. He had gotten up early that morning and come downstairs to find Lisa on the floor. She was unresponsive. He couldn\u2019t feel a pulse. He called 911 and did CPR, then sat on the floor, holding her in his arms, until the paramedics arrived.<\/p>\n
While the medical staff put Lisa in a room in ICU, Danny called Riley and me. Riley was out of town, working, but she told her dad she\u2019d be on the next plane. Then he called Michael to bring the twins. <\/p>\n
I went into emergency mode. Soldier mode, as my stepfather would have seen it. I didn\u2019t have the luxury of falling apart. I called my cousin Ivy at work and told her what was going on. Vikki said she\u2019d pick Ivy up and bring her back while I called Navarone. <\/p>\n
When Ivy got to my house, we left for the hospital in Woodland Hills, breaking a few speed limits on the way. There were already two paparazzi hiding on the hill when we arrived at the back entrance, waiting for me.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
[Note: In Priscilla\u2019s lawsuit against her former business partners, her former colleague said Navarone was not only indifferent to Lisa Marie dying, but refused to come to the hospital]<\/p>\n
Rolling Stone magazine:<\/p>\n
The next day, Jan. 12, paramedics rushed to a rented home in Calabasas, complete with a view of the mountains, to attend to a woman in \u201cfull cardiac arrest.\u201d A housekeeper had found Presley in her bedroom. Danny Keough, who remained close to his ex-wife, even serving as best man to her wedding to Lockwood, had moved into the house to help her after the death of their son, Ben. He administered CPR, as did the paramedics, who initially detected signs of life. Presley was taken to West Hills Hospital, where she again went into cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead hours later.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Riley: <\/p>\n
A couple days later, I went back to Vancouver where I was filming a show. I found myself checking in via text more than usual, but she was less responsive than she normally was. My worry deepened.<\/i><\/p>\n
On the morning of January 12, my mom texted my dad [who was taking the twins to school] and said, \u201cCan you please help? My stomach\u2019s hurting worse than ever. Can you bring Tums?\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019d been having a beautiful morning with the baby. I had texted my mom the day before and she hadn\u2019t responded, which was really unlike her. When my dad called, I knew something bad had happened.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s your mom,\u201d he said, \u201cand it\u2019s not looking good.\u201d<\/p>\n
My heart stopped.<\/p>\n
By the time he had gotten to her with the Tums she\u2019d asked for, the housekeeper had found her on the floor.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey think she\u2019s had a heart attack,\u201d he said. \u201cShe\u2019s in an ambulance now. They\u2019re trying to resuscitate her.\u201d<\/p>\n
I went right to the airport and got the first flight I could back to L.A. For the whole car ride, and then while I was in the air, my dad and my husband were texting me.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re at the hospital now\u2026. She\u2019s still alive\u2026. They\u2019ve resuscitated her\u2026. She has a pulse now\u2026. They\u2019re doing a scan to see what happened\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Priscilla: <\/p>\n
I knew from the first moment I walked into Lisa\u2019s hospital room that she was already gone. She was hooked to a machine that was breathing for her, and she had a heartbeat. There was little brain activity. Her spirit, always so vital, wasn\u2019t there. <\/i><\/p>\n
Riley later told us that while she was still on her flight, she had felt her mother\u2019s spirit pass. But none of us was ready to give up yet. <\/p>\n
A nurse came to tell me that Navarone had arrived. I asked her to bring him into the room. Then we began to wait. Finally, Navarone voiced the question we were all thinking. How long until we knew if she was going to start breathing again? The doctor said it could be two minutes. Or it could be two days. After two hours, Navarone couldn\u2019t take the anxiety any longer. He left to go into the other room. The others were allowed in one or two at a time. <\/p>\n
Danny and I remained, holding Lisa\u2019s hands, stroking her face, telling her we loved her.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Riley: <\/p>\n
On the airplane home, I felt like my mother was between two worlds, being resuscitated, falling, resuscitated, falling. I wanted so badly to be there with her\u2014spiritually at least\u2014and tell her that I supported whatever she wanted to do. I closed my eyes and talked to her spirit. \u201cIf you need to go, go. If you need to stay, stay.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Priscilla: <\/p>\n
[…] but then we heard an emergency alarm from Lisa\u2019s room. It was a code blue; Lisa\u2019s heart had stopped. <\/i><\/p>\n
As I started back to my daughter, the nurse detained Ivy and spoke to her in a whisper. Nodding toward me, she told Ivy, \u201cCome with us. I need you to stand right behind her. She\u2019s going to fall, and you will need to catch her.\u201d <\/p>\n
The next thing I remember is the doctor talking to me. He asked me what I wanted him to do. They had restarted Lisa\u2019s heart, but there was no guarantee it would keep beating. I asked the doctor, \u201cWhat kind of life will she have if we keep her on that machine?\u201d <\/p>\n
He looked at me with compassion and shook his head. \u201cNo quality of life at all.\u201d <\/p>\n
I thought about my girl, my wild, rebellious, passionate girl, lying in a vegetative state for the rest of her life. I said what I had to. <\/p>\n
\u201cTake her off the machine, Doctor.\u201d My voice was barely above a whisper. The nurse began to unhook the apparatus that kept Lisa\u2019s chest rising and falling. <\/p>\n
I looked at Danny and said, \u201cWe have to tell them, Danny. So they can say goodbye.\u201d <\/p>\n
But as I began to move toward the door, I heard Danny\u2019s anguished cry. \u201cNo, Nona! Don\u2019t go! We can\u2019t leave her all alone!\u201d <\/p>\n
It was unbearable. I began to sob. I don\u2019t remember falling. I know that Ivy caught me. After that, everything went dark. I can\u2019t remember. <\/p>\n
I don\u2019t want to remember.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Riley: <\/p>\n
We were somewhere due west of Death Valley when the texts from my dad stopped. I couldn\u2019t bear the silence for very long. I texted him, but I already knew.<\/i><\/p>\n
It was 5:18 p.m. when my father texted, \u201cShe\u2019s in cardiac arrest again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Oh God.<\/p>\n
At 5:19 he wrote, \u201cCan you call me?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, I\u2019m on the plane,\u201d I wrote.<\/p>\n
At 5:20 I wrote, \u201cIs she dying?\u201d<\/p>\n
My dad didn\u2019t respond for four minutes.<\/p>\n
I wrote again: \u201cDid she die?\u201d<\/p>\n
I waited. Then his reply arrived.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe passed on a few minutes ago, honey. Didn\u2019t want to tell you by text. But I\u2019m worried it\u2019s going to hit the papers. I love you so much. I\u2019m really sorry to tell you like this. I don\u2019t want you to be blindsided when you get off the plane.\u201d<\/p>\n
My father was my mom\u2019s biggest protector throughout her whole adult life. She had many friends that came and went, but he was there from when she was seventeen until the moment she died. He was the last person with her.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n