Lisa Niemi Swayze is showing that death is not the end for love.
It’s been 14 years since her husband, Patrick, subcame to pancreatic cancer, but her heart goes on with Patrick. During a conversation with Hoda Kotb on the Today show, Lisa reflected on how she copes with the loss.
“Just because somebody’s gone doesn’t end your relationship with them,” Lisa, 66, said. “We spent 34 years together, and that’s always going to be a part of my life and who I am.”
To that end, she hears the voice of the late Dirty Dancing actor “in [her] head” regularly — and, as Lisa explained, “He comments on what I’m doing.”
“When I need a bolstering up or something’s going on, I can ask him in my head, and I hear exactly what he’s saying, which is generally, ‘Come on, girl, get real,’ ” she joked. Lisa and Patrick were married at 18 and 23 respectively.
Lisa said that life without Patrick hit her hard. “I felt like I was 17 years old all over again and learning how to live again because I’d never not been part of a couple. It was a very difficult transition. It’s like losing an arm and a leg and having to learn how to walk and function all over again while you’re in terrific pain.”
Eventually Lisa would remarry, stating that just because the person you love leaves this Earth, that doesn’t mean their love for you or your love for them has to vanish either.
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