Lisa Marie Presley Said She 'Had a Lot to Do Still' During Final Visit to Son's Grave Before Her Death

On the eve of what would have been Elvis Presley's 88th birthday on Jan. 8, his only child, Lisa Marie Presley, took a moment for some quiet reflection at the King of Rock and Roll's beloved Graceland estate in Memphis, Tenn.

Long after the fans and workers had gone home, she brought her close friend, David Kessler, to the property's Meditation Garden, where both 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 — an author and grief expert Lisa Marie befriended after Benjamin's death by suicide at 27 in 2020 — says in this week's PEOPLE cover story. "I said, 'Not for a long time,' and she was like, 'Nope, I got a lot to do still.' 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."

Just five days later, Lisa Marie's third act was cut short. On the morning of Jan. 12, following a string of public appearances — delivering a heartfelt speech at Graceland during the day on Jan. 8; mingling alongside her daughter, actress Riley Keough, 33, at a birthday party for Elvis later that night at West Hollywood's Formosa Café, and celebrating with the cast of Elvis as Austin Butler took home a Golden Globe on Jan. 10 for playing the King — Lisa Marie went into cardiac arrest at her Calabasas, Calif., home and was rushed to the hospital. That evening, her mother Priscilla, 77, confirmed Lisa Marie's "devastating" death at 54.

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"She was the most passionate, strong and loving woman I have ever known," said Priscilla of her daughter, who was also mom to 14-year-old twin daughters Finley and Harper (with ex-husband Michael Lockwood).

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With her father's smoldering eyes and signature pout, Lisa Marie was beloved by fans from the moment she was born. After Elvis' death when she was 9, she weathered further hardships in the public eye, including high-profile divorces and struggles with addiction. But her biggest heartbreak came when Benjamin died.

"Grief is something you will have to carry with you for the rest of your life," she wrote last August in an emotional essay for People about navigating grief. "You do not 'get over it,' you do not 'move on,' period."

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After keeping a low profile following the loss of her son, Lisa Marie started to reemerge publicly in recent months for the promotion of Elvis.

"She was very nervous at first of how the public would react to the film because it was so important to her to do right by her father," says her longtime friend, Guns N' Roses rocker Axl Rose.

Ricardo DeAratanha/Los Angeles Times/Contour/Getty PEOPLE's cover honoring Lisa Marie Presley

Behind the scenes, she kept busy co-leading grief support groups with Kessler, often at her home.

"She had x-ray vision for other people's pain," says Kessler. "When you were in her gaze, no one else existed. She was focused on you. She talked about turning her pain into purpose."

On her most recent trip to Graceland, "she sat down with [a newly bereaved mother] for two to three hours and told her what to expect on this journey," says Kessler. "I just sat there watching how far she had come in her own pain. Her heart was still broken around Ben, but her heart was also healing around Ben."

In the last few years, it was Lisa Marie's candid vulnerability — and fighting spirit — that drew people to her time and time again. In 2019 she opened up in the foreword of Harry Nelson's book, The United States of Opioids: A Prescription for Liberating a Nation in Pain, about overcoming a secret addiction to prescription painkillers after the birth of her twins.

"You may read this and wonder how, after losing people close to me, I also fell prey to opioids," she wrote. "It only took a short-term prescription of opioids in the hospital for me to feel the need to keep taking them."

RELATED: Where Are Elvis Presley and His Family Members Buried? All About the Meditation Garden at Graceland

With help from a therapist, Lisa Marie was able to get sober. "I am proud. I've come a long way," she told Today in 2018.

No matter what storms came her way, including her four divorces, Lisa Marie always found joy in her role as a mother. She was shattered by Benjamin's death, but she remained a fierce protector of her daughters, who will inherit Graceland through a trust.

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

Karen Focht/ZUMA Benjamin Keough's gravesite at Graceland

In the coming days, Lisa Marie will be laid to rest next to her son in the place that meant the most to her. There will also be a public memorial service for her there on Jan. 22.

"It is absolutely 100 percent mine, and it has always been mine," she told Entertainment Tonight in 2013 of Graceland. "And when it is no longer mine, it will be my children's. And that is that."

In the wake of her death, loved ones are finding comfort by the thought of her reuniting with those she lost too soon.

"Who knows what comes after life, but I'd like to think they're together, Lisa Marie, Ben and her father, in some way," says Axl Rose. "Lisa, and the most important men in her life, happy together."