Patrick Swayze's Wife Of 34 Years Remembers His Last Words To Her Before Passing Away

Mar 25, 2020

It's hard to believe that legendary Patrick Swayze passed away over ten years ago. A star even before 'Dirty Dancing' and 'Ghost', Swayze will forever be in our hearts. Unfortunately, Swayze died on September 14, 2009, after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. His faithful wife of 34 years, Lisa Niemi, was by his side the entire time.

Niemi penned a memoir in 2011 titled 'Worth Fighting For'. The Daily Mail cited Niemi's story where she talks about Patrick's last words before he slipped slowly into a coma. "My last words to Patrick? ‘I love you,’ and those were his last words to me. After I brought him home, things went very fast," Niemi wrote. 

It was a Monday morning that Niemi woke up to hear him taking tiny gasps of air. She said that there was an almost childlike feeling to what was happening. She knew that it was his time to go. He slipped away that very day.

A new documentary is set to air on Paramount Network ten years after the actor's untimely demise. It is called "I Am Patrick Swayze" and will feature Niemi. In the documentary, she talks about her time with Buddy, her nickname for her deceased husband. She talked about how she walked out on the stage so long ago and looked into his eyes. It was true love from the start. 

The couple met when they were teenagers and got married in 1975. This was four years before Swayze made his film debut in a roller disco film known as 'Skatetown, USA.' The lovebirds were together until Swayze died in 2009. Niemi talked to Entertainment Tonight about how awful it was to watch her husband fight cancer.

"It's the worst thing in the world to go through, you spend every day fighting for that person's life. I know that he spent every day fighting for his own...He survived 22 months, which was miraculous with the diagnosis that he received."

The documentary isn't just about his triumphs. It also takes a close look at his struggles with alcohol abuse. Niemi said that he would be fun and bubbly until he was by himself. He would then crash, making their relationship strained and difficult. However, even though there were many challenges to overcome in their marriage, Niemi still loved him.

According to Niemi, Swayze took on a role working on the show 'The Beast' while he was fighting pancreatic cancer. She said Swayze was transformed during the role. While he had been spending a lot of time in bed, being in Chicago gave him an amazing burst of energy.

"His enormous burst of energy floored me. He was like his old take-charge self, going non-stop. I got Patrick back. He even showed occasional flashes of ‘star’ behavior, the stuff that would always drive me crazy, like making last-minute, arbitrary demands and suddenly being the unquestionable authority on ... just everything in the universe," Niemi wrote in her memoir.

She also mentioned that Swayze never wanted his job to be easier just because he was diagnosed with cancer. Even when his character was supposed to jump over a wall, he insisted on doing it instead of the stuntman that was hired. Niemi insists that working on the set of the show made Swayze feel stronger and happier despite his diagnosis.

In just a little under two years after the initial diagnosis, Swayze succumbed to pancreatic cancer on September 14, 2009. 'I Am Patrick Swayze' came out on August 18th which was also the late actor's birthday. Even ten years later, fans of the handsome star are still eager to learn everything that they can about him.

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