Lisa Niemi Swayze is remembering her late husband Patrick Swayze.
The dancer and actress, 67, caught up with PEOPLE ahead of the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network’s PurpleStride event on April 27, and she says she’s able to stay close to Patrick in her own unique ways, including by catching his films on TV.
“Every once in a while, yes!” she says when asked if she’ll watch his hits. “I catch a little bit here and there, and a few years ago, I watched Road House, and I was like, ‘Wait a second. This is really great. This is so campy.’ “
Road House, which premiered in 1989 and recently spawned a remake starring Jake Gyllenhaal, followed Patrick’s tough guy character Dalton as he takes on a role as a bouncer at a Missouri bar, and in doing so, helps protect the town from a corrupt businessman.
“When Sam [Elliott] says, ‘Mijo, you’re really f—– up,’ I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, you really are,’ ” Lisa says with a laugh of re-watching her late husband’s movie. “It’s amazing because it’s so campy, and yet it has a heart.”
Patrick, who died in 2009 at the age of 57 from pancreatic cancer, also famously starred in Dirty Dancing opposite Jennifer Grey — and Lisa is happy to see him in all of his various roles.
“I still love Ghost and Point Break, and of course every time we turn MTV on, there’s Patrick doing some moves in Dirty Dancing,” she says. “So it does my heart good.”
Lisa is also a big believer in “signs,” and she finds that when she really needs to hear from Patrick, he’s seemingly always able to find a way to communicate with her.
“Mostly, I hear him in my head. I hear him speaking to me and telling me things and saying, ‘What are you doing?’ and giving me advice,” she says. “But very, very often, I dream of him.”
She adds: “Particularly in the first, gosh, maybe the first 10 years, he would appear and he wouldn’t speak to me out loud, but he [would] speak to me telepathically, and it was a great source of comfort to me because I missed him so terribly.”
In fact, Lisa vividly recalls one dream in particular that came about when she was feeling really depressed in the wake of Patrick’s death.
“I had a girlfriend who I would call and get advice from. She’s really smart and wise, and I was just saying how after he passed, I felt like my life was ruined and I was in such pain,” Lisa recalls. “She said she prayed that evening. She said, ‘Please go to her. Please go to her’ to Patrick. And you know what? That night I had a dream that he showed up, and I went into his arms, and I wept like a baby for a very, very long time while he held me.”