Lisa Niemi, the widow of Patrick Swayze will be breaking her public silence next Tuesday (October 27) by speaking out in a discussion on Grief, Healing and Resilience at the Women’s Conference 2009 in Long Beach, CA.  Lisa and Patrick met as teenagers at his mom’s dance studio and were married for 34 years.

It was Lisa who proved a “pillar of strength” during the trying past year, her brother-in-law Don told PEOPLE. United in their focus to overcome Swayze’s pancreatic cancer and, as ever, spend his last days by each other’s sides, the couple maintained a fierce determination right up until Swayze’s death.

The Women’s Conference is hosted by Maria Shriver, who also lost her mother Eunice Shriver, and her uncle Ted Kennedy this summer. The goal of the conference is to encourage women from all areas of life to be “educated, inspired and empowered to be Architects of Change in their own lives, within their communities and around the world.”

[Images by Jody Cortes/WENN.com]

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