Everything about his last Interview, his last book and his last resting place

The Truth with Barbara Walters

Patrick sprach mit Barbara Walters offen über seine Krankheit

Exclusive Interview: Actor Tells Barbara Walters About 'Long, Hard Battle'

Patrick Swayze, seen here at the wrap party for his television series "The Beast," sat down for an interview with Barbara Walters to talk about his battle with pancreatic cancer.

Patrick Swayze: 'Am I Giving Up? No Way'

Doctors found that the actor had a malignant tumor in his midsection, and a tiny mass on his liver. Pancreatic cancer is extremely difficult to diagnose, and only after a battery of procedures over several days were his doctors able to make a definitive diagnosis: stage 4 pancreatic cancer.

It fell to Niemi, 52, to break the news to her husband.

"It was very surreal," she said. "They were like 99 percent sure. And I know he was still a little dopey from the procedure and I could have told him then, and I said you know what, this is information he can do without for just a few hours, 'cause after he learns this, we can't go back. So I waited until the next morning to tell him about it, and for the first few weeks it was like being in a nightmare you couldn't wake up from."

Although the majority of patients with advanced stage pancreatic cancer die within six months of the diagnosis, Swayze reacted with defiance.

"I have the meanness and the passion to say, 'To hell with you. Watch me! You watch what I pull off.'"

Swayze wanted to keep the secret as long as possible while he and his wife decided how to proceed, but the news of his life-threatening illness broke early last year when

Swayze said he was able to ignore the tabloids in the past but began to feel differently "when they start screwing with people I love, when they start screwing with my family.

"Hope is a very, very fragile thing in anyone's life," he said, "and the people I love do not need to have that hope robbed from them, when it's unjustified and it's untrue."

Swayze categorically denied tabloid reports that the end is near. "Am I dying? Am I giving up? Am I on my deathbed? Am I saying goodbye to people?

Dr. John Chabot, one of the country's leading pancreatic cancer researchers at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/The University Hospital of Columbia and Cornel, calls pancreatic cancer the silent killer because there are often few, if any, symptoms.

While Chabot said it's difficult to know what causes one individual's pancreatic cancer, he said that "smoking is the one thing that we know of that clearly, clearly, clearly increases the chance that somebody's gonna get pancreatic cancer."

Swayze has been a smoker for decades. He admitted to Walters that despite his diagnosis, "I am not a nonsmoker. I've seriously cut down." When pressed, he acknowledged, "I will go so far as to say probably smoking had something to do with my pancreatic cancer."

He said he hasn't quit yet because he does not believe it will change his prognosis. But he vows, "When it looks like I may live longer than five minutes? I'll drop cigarettes like a hot potato." For now, he said, "it's not my priority."

Swayze Takes on 'The Beast'

Beginning last July, Swayze began a grueling five months in Chicago filming his new TV series, called "The Beast," working 12 hours or more each day, mostly in cold, nighttime conditions.

Swayze, who plays an FBI agent, was proud to say that "nobody on the set ever saw me whine, moan like a girly-loser-man. I would do an attitude adjustment every morning."

"I've always known that Patrick is a really tough guy, but until all this illness came up in this past year, I had no idea really, the depths of his toughness and, and the amount of fight in him," said Niemi.

Still, at one point he considered giving in. "By the third episode in, at one point I didn't know if I was gonna finish this thing and I thought I'd made a big mistake," he said. "It just made me angry at myself though."

No matter how bad he felt, Swayze said he refused to take painkilling medicine. "If it's about pain, I can deal with it. I, I can rage my way through it. When you're shooting, you can't do drugs," he told Walters. "I can't do Hydrocodone or Vicodin or these kinds of things that take the edge off it, 'cause it takes the edge off your brain."

In five months, Swayze missed 1½ days of work.

Through it all, Niemi was by his side, during the private hours of excruciating pain and on the set, always supporting his decision to continue the work he loves. She even directed him in an episode.

She said it was Swayze's decision to commit to the series, but "the moment he showed up in Chicago there was this enormous burst of energy that was stunning. And that kind of said, you know, maybe we are in the right place."

The couple met 36 years ago, when 16-year-old Niemi walked into his mother's dance studio in Houston, and the 20-year-old Swayze became smitten for life.

Married for 33 years, Swayze said of his wife, "I have no greater respect for any other human being on this earth like I have for her. Part of me says I couldn't have made it through without her, but, of course, the other part of me says I could have, but not nearly as elegantly as I have."

Patrick Swayze has been "going through hell" in his yearlong battle with pancreatic cancer, but that hasn't stopped the actor from taking on a leading role in a new television series.

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Patrick Swayze talks about fear and angels as he battles cancer.

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"I've never been one to run from a challenge," Swayze told Barbara Walters in his first interview since his cancer diagnosis last January.

Still, when asked if he was scared, Swayze told Walters, "I don't know. I will be so either truthful or stupid as to say no. But then I immediately, when I say that, I have to say yes, I am."

"You can bet that I'm going through hell," Swayze said. "And I've only seen the beginning of it."

Walters first interviewed Swayze in 1988, at the height of the actor's "Dirty Dancing" fame. When they met again last month at his ranch in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains near Los Angeles, Swayze talked openly about his cancer, his treatment, his thoughts and fears, and his prognosis.

The 56-year-old's battle with cancer began late in 2007. As he celebrated New Year's Eve with his wife, Lisa Niemi, Swayze felt that something was wrong.

"I tried to have champagne, and it would be like pouring acid, you know, on an open wound."

Soon he found "my indigestion issues got gigantic and constant. And then I started thinking, I'm getting skinny. I dropped about 20 pounds in the blink of an eye. And then when you see it in the mirror, when all of a sudden, you pull your eyes down and the bottom of your eyes go yellow and jaundice sets in -- then you know something's wrong."

Swayze realized that he needed medical attention. "I started doing a little research and started realizing this is not pretty. This is not a good thing."

Swayze Takes on 'The Beast'

Swayze has been a beloved actor for decades, with cultlike fans who claim to have watched his films hundreds of times. It has been 22 years since the sexy gyrating star of "Dirty Dancing" boogied into the hearts of a generation, and his Texas cowboy heritage came in handy for his role as a take no prisoners bouncer in a Midwest saloon in "Road House."

He was macho enough to play a man playing a woman in "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar," but it was his role in "Ghost," opposite Demi Moore, that sealed his destiny among the top romantic actors of all time.

Beginning last July, Swayze began a grueling five months in Chicago filming the new TV seriescalled "The Beast," working 12 hours or more each day, mostly in cold, nighttime conditions.

"I think everybody thought I was out of my mind, you know, thinking I'm gonna pull off a TV show," said Swayze, who plays an FBI agent battling internal demons. The work was exhausting, and he could not rest on the weekends because he was undergoing intensive chemotherapy. But Swayze never let on to co-star Travis Fimmel or anyone else on the set how tough things were.

No matter how bad he felt, Swayze said he refused to take painkilling medicine. "When you're shooting, you can't do drugs," he told Walters. "I can't do Hydrocodone or Vicodin or these kinds of things that take the edge off of it, 'cause it takes the edge off of your brain."

In five months, Swayze missed 1½ days of work.

Through it all, Niemi was by his side, during the private hours of excruciating pain and on the set, always supporting his decision to continue the work he loves. She even directed him in an episode.

She said it was Swayze's decision to commit to the series, but "the moment he showed up in Chicago there was this enormous burst of energy that was stunning. And that kind of said, you know, maybe we are in the right place."

The couple met 36 years ago, when 16-year-old Niemi walked into his mother's dance studio in Houston and 20-year-old Swayze was smitten for life.

Married for 33 years, Swayze said of his wife, "I have no greater respect for any other human being on this earth like I have for her. Part of me says I couldn't have made it through without her, but, of course, the other part of me says I could have, but not nearly as elegantly as I have."

'I Can Keep Going'

Niemi told Walters her one regret is that the couple never had children. "If you ask, well, why or why not, I don't know, just life happened," she said. "But how can I complain, because I certainly have enormous riches in my life."

Actor Patrick Swayze sat down for an interview -- and stood up for a dance -- with Barbara Walters. Swayze spoke openly about his yearlong battle with pancreatic cancer.

Still, Niemi has struggled to cope with her husband's illness.

"I've got a lot of strength, but as a friend once said, you're really strong, but you're weak when it comes to him. It's the first time in my life I said, 'I can't do this, I can't do it.' And somehow, you find a way of coming to terms with it. One of the best ways of getting through that is to open your eyes and appreciate what you do have."

Niemi has yet to face the prospect of life without her husband. "I can't help but wonder how I'd be able to do that. And I think that, you know, I'm just gonna figure that out when I get there."

Swayze insists he doesn't want to be the poster boy for living with cancer, but like it or not, his stubborn refusal to let cancer alter his life has become an inspiration. He has received thousands of letters from around the world offering advice and encouragement.

"The outpouring of love has, has constantly astounded me," Swayze said.

Swayze said the illness has made him think more about the afterlife.

Swayze insists he doesn't want to be the poster boy for living with cancer, but like it or not, his stubborn refusal to let cancer alter his life has become an inspiration. He has received thousands of letters from around the world with advice and encouragement.

"The outpouring of love has, has constantly astounded me," Swayze said.

Swayze said the illness has made him think more about the afterlife.

"I don't know what's on the other side," he said. "It tests everything I believe in … that here is something unique in all of us that does not, does not die."

Swayze said he talks to his father, who died before the actor became famous.

"I like to believe that I've got a lot of guardian warriors sitting on my shoulder, including my dad, saying, 'You just let Swayze dog know it's been his turn all this time. You just let us do the work and we'll finish it for him.' And so, I'm trying to shut up and let my angels speak to me and, and tell me what I'm supposed to do."

"What winning is to me is not giving up, is no matter what's thrown at me, I can take it," Swayze said. "And I can keep going."

Pancreatic Cancer Diagnosis a 'Nightmare' for Swayze

Doctors found that the actor had a malignant tumor in his midsection and a tiny mass on his liver. Pancreatic cancer is extremely difficult to diagnose, and only after a battery of procedures over several days were his doctors able to make a definitive diagnosis: Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. "For the first few weeks, it was like being in a nightmare you couldn't wake up from," recalled Niemi, 52.

Swayze wanted to keep the secret as long as possible while he and his wife decided how to proceed, but the news of his life-threatening illness broke early last year when tabloids reported he had only five weeks to live. Although the majority of patients with advanced stage pancreatic cancer die within six months of the diagnosis, Swayze told Walters his response to the diagnosis was, "Watch me! You watch what I pull off."

Dr. John Chabot, one of the country's leading pancreatic cancer researchers at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, calls pancreatic cancer the silent killer because there can be few, if any, symptoms.

"One of the most important problems is we tend to diagnose it late. Fifty percent of people, when they're diagnosed, the cancer has already spread to other organs, and there's almost no chance of cure with current treatments."

For Swayze, surgery to remove the cancer was not an option because it had spread to his liver. He embarked on an aggressive course of traditional chemotherapy along with the experimental drug Vatalanib.

Beating the odds, Swayze has lived with his cancer for a year and has stayed out of the spotlight, except when he appeared on the televised "Stand Up to Cancer" fundraiser last September. The crowd leapt to its feet when he walked onstage.

"I keep dreaming of a future, a future with a long and healthy life," Swayze said, "not lived in the shadow of cancer, but in the light."

The Time of my Life

Prologue

In late December 2007, life was looking pretty good. I had just wrapped shooting on the pilot of a new TV series, The Beast. My wife, Lisa, and I were enjoying a second honeymoon of sorts after a long, difficult period in which we had grown painfully apart. And I was feeling excited about new work, new directions, and the promise of the future.

Lisa and I were planning to spend New Year's Eve at our ranch in New Mexico, as we'd done for the past few years. But first, we stopped off in Aspen to visit a couple of friends. It was there that I got the first hint that something was wrong.

I had been having some digestive trouble, mostly acid reflux and a kind of bloated feeling, for a few weeks. I've had a sensitive stomach my whole life, so I hadn't thought much of it, but lately I just couldn't shake the constant discomfort. I wasn't hungry and felt sick whenever I did eat, but I'd always been pretty healthy, so I figured the feeling would pass eventually.

In Aspen, we all raised glasses of champagne for a toast. I took a sip, and as the champagne began to course through my esophagus to my stomach, I nearly choked -- it burned like acid going down. It felt like I'd drunk lye, a sharp, searing pain that brought tears to my eyes. I'd never felt anything like it, but not wanting to ruin the festivities, I said nothing to Lisa. I was used to ignoring pain, so I just didn't drink any more champagne that night, and didn't think anything more about it.

Three weeks later, in January 2008, I learned that the burning in my stomach wasn't some minor irritation. It was the result of blockage in my bile ducts, which was caused by pancreatic cancer -- just about the most deadly, untreatable cancer you can get.

When my doctor at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles said the words "pancreatic cancer," a single thought popped into my mind: I'm a dead man. That's what I had always thought when I heard someone had pancreatic cancer, and it usually turned out to be true. My doctor told me that my chances of surviving for more than a few months weren't high, and I had no reason to doubt him.

A lot of things go through your head when you get a death sentence handed to you, starting with Why me? What did I do to deserve this? Once the shock wears off, it's hard not to sink into bitterness, to feel that you've been singled out in a way that's not fair. For me, that initial shock quickly turned to selfcriticism and blame. Did I do this to myself? What could I have done differently? Is it my fault?

In those first few weeks after my diagnosis, amid the whirlwind of figuring out treatments and medication, I struggled, with Lisa's help, to make sense of what was happening to me. Trying to counteract all the negative emotions that kept welling up -- anger, bitterness, despair -- I began thinking to myself, I've had more lifetimes than any ten people put together, and it's been an amazing ride. So this is okay.

I was trying to find a way to accept what was going on, but then a funny thing happened. I just couldn't. I wasn't ready to go, and I was damned if this disease was going to take me before I was good and ready. So I said to my doctor, "Show me where the enemy is, and I will fight him." I wanted to understand exactly what I was up against so I could go after this cancer rather than waiting for it to beat me. And in the year and a half since my diagnosis, that's exactly what I've done, with every ounce of energy I have.

Fighting cancer has been the most challenging and eyeopening experience I've ever had, and it has sent me on an emotional journey deeper than anything I've felt before. Facing your own mortality is the quickest way possible to find out what you're made of. It strips away all the bullshit and exposes every part of you -- your strengths and weaknesses, your sense of self. Your soul.

It also leads you to confront life's hardest questions: Is there a heaven? Will I make it in? Has this life counted for something other than just my own narcissism? Have I lived a good life? Am I a good person? It's easy to dismiss these difficult questions when you have your whole life ahead of you. But when you're faced with your own mortality, they suddenly take on a whole new meaning.

There's a scene at the end of Saving Private Ryan that really resonated with me when I first saw it, and it does now more than ever. As an old man, Private Ryan muses aloud about whether he's lived a good life. "I tried to live my life the best I could," he says. "I hope that was enough." It's so hard to judge your own life, to know whether you've made a mark in this world. Doing this book was, in part, a quest to find that out for myself.

I've never been one to spend a lot of time dwelling in the past, so spending time with Lisa looking back at our lives has been really illuminating. Especially in light of what our future now holds, it has also been cathartic. I never felt like I had all the answers, and I certainly don't claim to now. Yet the one thing I realized as Lisa and I retraced the arc of our lives is that no matter what happened, we never, ever gave up -- on each other, or on our dreams. I'm far from perfect, and I've made a lot of mistakes in my life. But that's one thing we both got right, and it's the one thing that's keeping me going today.

As I write this, sitting in our beautiful ranch home in New Mexico with the sun beaming down on the mountains, I realize yet again how much more I want to do in this life. Together with Lisa, I'll keep on pushing, keep on believing. Because that, in the end, is the greatest gift we have.

Patrick Swayze
June 2009

As Patrick and I have been writing this book, I couldn't help but be amazed by all the stories of things we've done and been through. It was surprising to me how hard we've both worked our whole lives, how focused and single-minded we could be. It must be the dancer in us. Always striving to be more, do better, never settle. And that drive to be better has served us well, particularly with all that we're going through now.

Looking back now, I wish I had done more of the proverbial "stop and smell the roses." So many gorgeous, beautiful things have happened in my life and I was too busy moving forward to really, truly recognize and enjoy them. I'm feeling different these days. Today I find myself much more willing to take luxurious, selfish pleasure in how beautiful a day is, the wonderful smell of my favorite mare's hair, and how much overflowing love I feel for my husband.

After Patrick was first diagnosed, I found myself wanting to go back in time and fix all the bumps that we had ever encountered. I wished we could start all over again so that this time we could do it differently. We could be wiser, avoid all those wrong turns we made, and not waste so much time. This time we would laugh more, touch each other more, and simply love each other in the way our true selves always have. And of course, if this daydream came true, I'd get a chance to live our lives together all over again, fulfilling my greatest wish -- to have more time with him.

In some ways, getting to do this book gave me a passport into the past. But not in the way I had thought. It couldn't elongate my time with him, but it did show me that some of those bumps I wished I could get rid of don't look so bad when we keep coming out on the other side. And they're a testament to the strength of what we are together.

You'd think that when someone close to you receives a death sentence it would inspire amazing insights and lessons about life. I know that's what I thought. But after his diagnosis, and after I started to recover from feeling I was trapped in a perpetual nightmare, I looked around and couldn't see a damn lesson in sight. Yet slowly, as I've been dealing with getting past the initial grief and fear, living each day that comes and running around preparing for all the things one can't possibly prepare for, the lessons have started to ease out into the open. I couldn't force them out any sooner. They come in their own time when they, and you, are good and ready.

There's a lot of wisdom in the idea of living one day at a time. And when you might not have someone for long, that's what starts to happen.

I used to be afraid of time -- that I'd run out of it, that I wouldn't have time to do all the things I wanted. Now I'm seeing each minute that passes as a victory. As something I'm proud of. It's like I can gather all these minutes into my arms as if they're an enormous mass of jewels. Look what I have -- another moment! A kiss, a stroke of the skin on my husband's arm, the light coming through the window just so...Each of these jewels gives me the confidence to stand up and look Death in the face and say, "No one's going anywhere today."

I can help Patrick -- I can coach him, love him, track his medications and calories, be there to kick him in the pants or just hold his hand if he needs it. But I can't save him. And I try to remember that. But I've got the best possible thing on my side: Patrick himself. I love that he's such a fighter. He's so amazingly strong and beautiful. He's my best weapon against this terrible disease.

You know, we were in New Mexico a couple of years after Patrick had broken both his legs in a life-threatening horse accident while filming Letters from a Killer. We walked out into the fresh mountain air, and he had taken off his shirt to enjoy the sun as we strolled into our beautiful fifty-acre pasture to visit with our five spirited Arabian horses. Patrick was rubbing one of the horses on her neck and I had walked off a ways for some reason or another. And I turned around just in time to see him grab a handful of mane and swing himself up on the mare's back. No saddle, no bridle, nothing.

She and the other horses started to trot off together and then, in a tight group, they launched into a full gallop, Patrick riding bareback in the middle of them through the open field. I couldn't believe it. I couldn't help but see how fantastic and free he looked. And I couldn't help but be pissed off. I mean, he'd just broken his legs a year or so earlier in that horse accident and he was going to risk doing it again?

The horses had their joyride and slowed to an easy trot, and Patrick hopped off blithely, unscathed. As he walked over to me he smiled a little sheepishly, waiting to see if I was going to admonish him. But I couldn't. I could only shake my head and try my best not to smile. This is the man who's taken on cancer. As always, he's on the ride of his life. And I know that he's going to ride this horse as far as it'll go.

Lisa Niemi
July 2009

To visit the dedicated Atria Books website for "The Time of My Life" click here. You can order the book or the 5 cd set Audio Book from the publishers or any of the other stockists featured on the Atria Books website.

Time of My Life is available on CD and for download. Read by Patrick Swayze and Lisa Niemi. For more information click here to visit the Simon and Schuster website.

Thank you to Atria and Simon and Schuster who have also kindly sent us the audio clip and artwork from the Audio CD of the book in which Patrick and Lisa read the entire volume. Please click the play arrow on the player below to hear Patrick reading an excerpt from their book.

Dies ist von der Patrick Swayze Fanclub Seite

Ich werde dich ewig lieben“

Es klingt wie eine Botschaft aus dem Jenseits. Eine Liebeserkärung der besonderen Art. In seinen Memoiren schrieb Patrick Swayze über die unglaubliche Beziehung zu seiner Frau – und gibt ihr etwas, dass ihr nicht einmal der Tod nehmen kann.

Das letzte offizielle Bild des Paares. Eng kuschelt sich Lisa an ihren Patrick.

Ihre Beziehung war etwas Besonderes, etwas, das man in Hollywood nur selten findet. 34 Jahre lang tanzte Patrick Swayze an der Seite seiner Frau Lisa Niemi (53) durchs Leben. Sie war für ihn da, in guten wie in schlechten Zeiten – bis der Tod sie schied. Es war ein Versprechen, dass sie ihm als 19-jähriges Mädchen gegeben hatte. Ein Versprechen, das Lisa sehr ernst nahm. Nach seiner Krebsdiagnose ging Patrick Swayze durch die Hölle, doch die Liebe zu seiner Frau half ihm, auch diesen Weg zu gehen. In Patricks schwersten Stunden saß die 53-Jährige an seiner Seite, hielt seine Hand, spendete ihm Trost. Auch in den letzten Minuten war sie bei ihm, gab ihm Kraft und Wärme. Wie schwer diese Stunden für Lisa gewesen sein müssen, kann man nur erahnen. Und wie schwer muss es für sie erst sein, die Liebe ihres Lebens nach so langer Zeit gehen zu lassen ...

Doch der verstorbene Schauspieler hinterlässt seiner Frau etwas, dass ihr niemand mehr nehmen kann – nicht einmal der Tod. In der US-Sendung „Good Morning America“ wurde jetzt eine Szene gezeigt, in der Swayze aus seinen Memoiren „The Time of my life“ vorliest: „Wie dankbar bin ich, dass du dich entschieden hast, mich zu lieben“, schrieb der verstorbene Schauspieler über die Ehe mit Lisa. „Ich weiß, dass ich deinetwegen meine Seele gefunden habe. Ich sah den Mann, der ich sein wollte. Du bist meine Frau, meine Geliebte, meine Freundin und meine Lady. Ich habe dich immer geliebt, ich liebe dich jetzt und ich werde dich immer lieben.“

Verstreut meine Asche auf meiner Ranch

Er hat bis zum Schluss gekämpft. Nun findet er Ruhe

Patrick Swayzes Leichnam wurde verbrannt. afp

Los Angeles - "She’s like the wind" war Patrick Swayzes Superhit. Nun geht er selbst mit dem Wind. Die Asche des Schauspielers wird auf seiner "Rancho de Dias Alegres" (Ranch der glücklichen Tage) verstreut.

Eine Ranch der glücklichen Tage war es für ihn wirklich. 70 Quadratkilometer wilde Natur, 700 Rinder, 20 Pferde. "Deine Pferde lügen dich nicht an", hatte Swayze einmal gesagt. Hier, im Bundesstaat New Mexico, war er Patrick der Tierfreund, der Umweltschützer. Fernab vom Hollywood-Trubel hat er auf dem Areal ein Naturschutzgebiet und eine Farm für Naturholz errichtet. Die Ruhe gab ihm Kraft, den Kampf gegen den Krebs anzutreten.

"Das Anwesen ist mein Lieblingsort", hatte er Freunden erzählt. Es hätte keinen besseren Ort für sein Begräbnis geben können. Schon heute oder morgen soll Swayzes Asche durch seine Familie dem Wind übergeben werden. Am Montag war der "Dirty Dancing"-Star dem heimtückischen Bauchspeicheldrüsenkrebs erlegen (wir berichteten). Bis zum Schluss hat er dagegen gekämpft. Unterstützt wurde er von seiner Frau Lisa Niemi, in deren Armen er entschlief. In seinem letzten Fernsehinterview sagte Swayze: "Das einzige, was du mitnehmen kannst, wenn du stirbst, ist die Liebe, die du in dir trägst." Patrick trug viel Liebe in sich.

Letzte Ruhe auf seiner Ranch

Patrick Swayze liebte die Ruhe und den Frieden auf seiner Ranch in New Mexiko. Dorthin zog er sich zurück, um Kraft für seinen Kampf gegen den Krebs zu sammeln. Genau an diesem Ort soll er nun auch die letzte Ruhe finden – und das bereits innerhalb der nächsten 48 Stunden.

Patrick Swayze erlag nach langem Kampf seinem Krebsleiden.

„“ (übersetzt: „Ranch der frohen Tage“) – wie sehr Hollywoodstar Patrick Swayze diesen Ort liebte, ist kein Geheimnis. Freunde und Anwohner bestätigen, dass der verstorbene Schauspieler ein besonderes Verhältnis zu seiner Ranch hatte. Auf dem Anwesen soll er laut Berichten der amerikanischen Internetseite „Radaronline.com“ nun auch seine letzte Ruhe finden.

Patrick Swayze: Emotionale Bilder aus seinem Leben

Der „Dirty Dancing“-Star, der am Montag im Alter von 57 Jahren verstarb, besuchte die Ranch, wann immer er konnte. Nach Berichten von „Radaronline.com“ liebte er das Cowboyleben fernab vom Hollywood-Glamour und erschuf sich mit dem Wildtierreservat sein ganz eigenes Paradies.

Genau hier verstarb Swayze am Montag im Kreis seiner Familie an den Folgen einer Krebserkrankung. Über zwanzig Monate hatte er um sein Leben gekämpft, konnte die Krankheit am Ende jedoch nicht besiegen. Nun findet er seinen Frieden an dem Platz, den er am meisten liebte: Nach der Trauerzeremonie soll seine Asche auf dem Gelände der Ranch verteilt werden.

Informationen darüber, ob auch eine öffentliche Trauerfeier abgehalten wird, waren von offizieller Seite bislang nicht zu bekommen.

Zum Thema:

NEW MEXICO RANCH PHOTO

Patrick Swayze, in the above photo with his wife Lisa Niemi and their Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy Kumasai, will be cremated within 48 hours of his death Monday and his ashes will be spread over his New Mexico Ranch. Above Photo taken a couple months ago on his Ranch. It is amazing how cancer can just rip through and spread through a body so fast. It breaks my heart that this happened to such a wonderful, talented and handsome gentleman. It saddens me that not only was his life cut short from this deadly disease but grief and saddness for his family and people that are left behind........

Heute, am Freitag, findet der kürzlich verstorbene Publikumsliebling Patrick Swayze (Viply berichtete) angeblich seine letzte Ruhe: Er wird eingeäschert, die Asche soll auf seiner geliebten Ranch „Rancho de Dias Alegres“ („Ranch der glücklichen Tage“) in New Mexico verstreut werden, berichten Medien. Hier hatte er sich ein Wild-Reservat geschaffen und kam her, so oft er konnte. Er „liebte das Cowboy-Leben und die Flüge mit seinem Flugzeug über die Ranch“, so ein Freund. Deshalb möchte seine Familie auch an diesem Ort die Asche verstreuen.

Aus Patrick Swayzes Memoiren mit dem Titel „The time of my life“, die er mit seiner Frau Lisa Niemi schrieb, wurden derweil erste Auszüge bekannt: „Als ich hörte, dass ich krank bin, begann ich nachzudenken. Mir wurde klar, dass ich mehr tolle Dinge in meinem Leben erlebt hatte als viele andere Leute. Es war ein toller Ritt, also ist das so ok“, sagte der „Dirty Dancing“-Star vor seinem Tod.