Lisa Niemi Sends ‘Good Thoughts and Loving Kisses’ to Late Husband Patrick Swayze on Ghost's Opening Night

Emotions were running high when musical romance Ghost opened at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on April 23, but none were higher than those of Lisa Niemi, whose late husband Patrick Swayze starred in the original iconic 1990 film.

“I’m excited to see it,” Niemi told Broadway.com before entering the theater on opening night. “But we brought a box of tissues just in case. I’m determined I’m not going to cry, but I always cried during the movie.”

Niemi and Swayze first met in 1970 when he was 18 and she just 14 and a student at his mother’s Houston dance studio. They were married in 1975. In 2008, Swayze was diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer. He passed away in September 2009 at the age of 57.

“I’m here with a friend who also lost her husband to pancreatic cancer,” Niemi said, “So this is very special for us because of that connection and because of Ghost, and how fabulous everyone in this production is and how fabulous everyone in the movie was. We’re going to be sending good thoughts and loving kisses to our husbands.”