PATRICK Swayze’s widow Lisa Niemi has spoken publicly for the first time since the actor’s death — and insisted she “will see him again”.
Swayze died September 14 after losing his battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 57.
Niemi opened up about her loss Tuesday during a roundtable discussion on Grief, Healing and Resilience at the Women’s Conference 2009 in Long Beach, Calif.
“When the grief takes you, it’s like your body is not your own,” she said. “I’m just going with the flow. I know I have to go through it.”
Patrick and Lisa first met in 1970 when Swayze was 18 years old and Niemi, 14.
Niemi says she’s relied on a close group of friends to get through some of her darker hours.
“I have a few girlfriends that are just amazing. They have made themselves available to me 24/7. They say, ‘We don’t care if it’s 2 in the morning, call me’,” she said. “I was in the middle of a full-blown panic attack one evening … and I picked up the phone and called one, which is really hard for me to do because I’m used to being so self-sufficient and taking care of myself, but the very act of picking the phone up to call someone helped to calm me.”
“I’ve spent two thirds of my life with him … My regret is that I didn’t tell him that I loved him enough over that entire 34 years,” she said.
“I am so grateful for what I had and my connection to him, and part of me believes that I will see him again, and I’m just going to have to go on until then.”
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