Patrick Swayze's Widow on Their Love 14 Years After His Death: It 'Doesn't End Your Relationship'

"We spent 34 years together, and that's always going to be a part of my life and who I am," Lisa Niemi Swayze said

Lisa Niemi Swayze's love for her late husband Patrick Swayze lives on.

Over 13 years after the actor died on Sept. 14, 2009, at the age of 57 from pancreatic cancer, his widow reflected on their marriage during a conversation with Hoda Kotb on the Today show Friday.

"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.

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Related: Patrick Swayze's Wife: I Feel Like He Hasn't Left

Lisa also opened up about her work with the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network and supporting events like the PurpleStride fundraising walk happening this Saturday.

"I still care and I know how tough Patrick's and my journey was with this," she told Kotb, 58. "Cancer may have taken him, but it didn't beat him. And I'm continuing his fight for him."

Lisa, who married jeweler Albert DePrisco in 2014, said her advice about finding love again in a similar situation is to simply "be open."

"I can't tell you how many widows say, 'I'm never going to get married again. I'm never selling this house.' And you know what? You do it when you're ready and not a moment before," she said.

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As for her advice to caregivers, Lisa said it would be to "take care of yourself, too."

"Find a way to give yourself breaks and nourish yourself," she said. "If somebody came over and was watching [Patrick], I'd go to TJ Maxx and shop for two hours. I'd go buy my $12 shirt and check out and I was good to go."

Talking with others who have been in a similar situation can also be a huge help, she said.

"I talk to women who've been through the same thing and their husbands got extremely angry — it was really difficult," Lisa told Today. "I would encourage someone to take each other's hands, look each other in the eye and go through it together."

"Because for Patrick and myself, it was so clear that nothing else mattered except the love that we had between us," she added.

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