Lisa Niemi, the widow of actor Patrick Swayze, has revealed that she continues to “talk” to him nearly 17 years after his death, saying the connection still brings her comfort and eases her loneliness.
Speaking to Us Weekly, Niemi said she often feels his presence in her daily life and imagines how he would respond to certain situations. “I still feel him with me every day, and hear what he would say to me about certain things,” she said. “I talk to him, I feel him. I hear his voice in my head.”
The Dirty Dancing star died in 2009 at the age of 57 after battling pancreatic cancer. Niemi described his diagnosis as an “instant nightmare,” recalling how Swayze himself recognized the seriousness of the illness from the outset.
“Nothing prepares you,” she said, adding that he once told her, “I’m a dead man,” shortly after receiving the diagnosis.
Niemi said that while they initially resolved to fight the disease together, they were both aware of the slim odds of survival. “We all knew how this would, in all likelihood, end,” she said.
Following his death, Niemi spoke of overwhelming grief after more than three decades together, describing the loss as deeply isolating. She has since found support through her current marriage to jeweller Albert DePrisco, whom she wed in 2014.
Despite moving forward in her life, Niemi said Swayze’s memory remains ever-present. She continues to honour him through advocacy work with pancreatic cancer organizations and keeps photographs of him around her home.
“I can love Patrick, and I can love [my husband] Albert,” she said, adding that she believes Swayze would have wanted her to find happiness again.#newsafro_
