Lisa Niemi Talks to Patrick Swayzes Ghost

's widow Lisa Niemi still talks to his ghost.

She told Us Weekly on Friday that she chats with him all the time which helps her feel less lonely. 'I still feel him with me every day, and hear what he would say to me about certain things. It's great,' she shared. 

'I talk to him, I feel him. I hear his voice in my head. He gives me advice, and I am absolutely certain that he is there whenever I need him. And I still have pictures all around of Patrick.' 

She went through hell as her husband valiantly fought – and then lost – his battle against pancreatic . Nearly 17 years after Swayze's death, Niemi has spoken out about the 'instant nightmare' hurled at them after the Dirty Dancing star's diagnosis with Stage IV pancreatic cancer in January 2008.

'Nothing prepares you,' Niemi said in an emotional interview. 'Actually, when Patrick first found out, when the doctor left the room, he turned to me and said, "I’m a dead man."'

'Because he knew something about pancreatic cancer from some of his buddies. I didn't know as much as he did, but he knew that it was almost a death sentence.'

While they pledged to 'fight this with everything we have,' she knew the odds were against them.

'It was being thrown into an instant nightmare. We all knew how this would, in all likelihood, end, but we held out hope that he would be the one that would make it through,' recalled Niemi, who .

After Swayze's death in September 2009, Niemi was plunged into grief and loneliness.

'Patrick and I were married for 34 years and I pretty much ,' she explained. 'To be without that meaningful relationship was very hard and extremely lonely. I was much lonelier than I would have admitted at that time.'

Niemi continues to maintain a close connection to her late husband, and she keeps his memory alive through her advocacy work with organizations such Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, which is holding its annual Purple Stride event on May 25.

The couple - seen in July 2005 - were married 34 years and Niemi said, 'To be without that meaningful relationship was very hard'