Lisa Niemi, who was married to actor Patrick Swayze for 34 years before his death from pancreatic cancer in 2009, has found new love and is engaged to be married.

Niemi met jeweler Albert DePrisco through mutual friends and the couple have been dating for a year and a half. Niemi, a dancer who met Swayze when she was just a teenager, is also an author and wrote a book to help cope with the loss of her husband titled “Worth Fighting For: Love, Loss and Moving Forward.” After helping him battle cancer for more than two years before he succumbed to the disease, it was unclear–even to Niemi–whether she would be up for a romantic relationship again.

“I would love companionship love. Absolutely. I hope I’m not one of these women who never want to have another relationship,” she told People Magazine in 2010. “But who knows, that’s another bridge I’ll cross when I come to it. I may get there and go, I don’t know. But I like to think that I can.”

She also said at the time that going through what she did with Swayze changed her for the better.

“I know I’m stronger now. The fact that I’ve had some good days definitely gives me hope that I can have more,” she said.

Swayze and Niemi met as teens at his mother’s Texas dance studio and often performed together throughout their marriage; Swayze, of course, is well-known for his role in the ’80s classic “Dirty Dancing”.

Image via Wikimedia Commons