Riley Keough is working toward becoming a death doula after losing her brother Benjamin Keough to suicide eight months ago.
“Today I finished my Death Doula training, on The Art of Death Midwifery training course by @sacred_crossings so I guess I’m an almost certified death doula now hehe,” the Golden Globe nominee, 31, wrote via Instagram on Sunday, March 21. “And I just felt like writing such a deep thank you to this community who are teaching and training people in conscious dying and death work.”
“We are taught that its a morbid subject to talk about. Or were 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,” Riley continued in her Instagram post. “I think it’s so important to be educated on conscious dying and death the way we educate ourselves on birth and conscious birthing. We prepare ourselves so rigorously for the entrance and have no preparation for our exit.”
Death doulas help people at the end of their lives, and help families coping with loss. Benjamin died at 27 at his mother Lisa Marie Presley’s L.A. home. Lisa Marie’s rep told Us Weekly at the time that she was “entirely heartbroken, inconsolable and beyond devastated but trying to stay strong” for Riley and the singer’s twin daughters, Finley and Harper, now 12.
Benjamin was laid to rest at his grandfather Elvis Presley’s Graceland estate. Riley has shared her grief on social media over losing her brother several times; she got his name tattooed on her collarbone weeks after his death.