Patrick Swayze went away to be with the Lord on 14 September 2009 at the age of 57 after a 20-month battle with pancreatic cancer. Like many celebrities, he used his celebrity status to raise money and awareness for cancer research, and comfort fellow patients.

I’ve probably watched only a handful of his movies when I was much younger – primary school or so – and honestly do not remember them all that well. I do however remember the final scene from the movie Ghost in which he starred with Demi Moore.

The scene in which she as a mortal finally sees and hears her sweetheart, now a ghost, who was killed before her very eyes. The movie showed how powerful love can be, that love knows no boundaries and no reason.

In his personal life, Swayze also experienced and lived life with his true love.

He and his wife, Lisa Niemi have been married for 34 years (ending with his death). They met when they were only teens, married young (she was 19, he was 23), survived the torments of Hollywood and fought cancer bravely together, till the very end.

Way before Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman called it quits, I had thought them the stellar couple of Hollywood; two superstars in their own right with a solid marriage that could withstand paparazzi, fame and jealousy. Needless to say, they were a disappointment. Perhaps they were never meant to be, which explains why they were not blessed with children of their own. Yet both have gone on to have children with their current spouse, and who knows how long those will last.

But my theory is fraud.

Swayze and Niemi have been lifelong partners, sticking through thick and thin together, surely they are meant to be. Yet they do not have any children.

They are the exemplary couple that the media should have focused on. Not on the flippant life of, say… Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. I mean, I admired Jolie particularly for her film Girl, Interrupted. But Pitt kind of dug his own grave by leaving homely Jennifer Aniston for Jolie, who is evidently of a stronger personality.

We need more stories of marriages that last, media coverage of couples who kept their marriage vows till death do them part. Young people today need to learn what marriage is about. Marriage is not a trial-and-error thing. It is a lifelong commitment a man and a woman choose to enter into, and make a solemn vow for.

We need hope that there is someone for everyone – the only one we should marry.

Angels will take care of Swayze for the great man he was. God bless those he left behind, particularly his wife Lisa.