Joey Feek can no longer walk or get out of her bed, but that doesn’t mean she has given up hope. In a new photo, shared by her husband and duet partner, Rory Feek, on Facebook, Joey is all smiles as she and her daughter, Indiana, wear hand-made pigtails.
As the Inquisitr previously reported, Joey Feek was diagnosed with stage four cervical cancer last year, three months after giving birth to her daughter. She later underwent a radical hysterectomy and several rounds of chemotherapy and radiation. Although weak from the treatment, Joey and her doctors believed she had beaten the disease. However, in mid-October, her doctors made a grim discovery. Not only had Joey’s cancer returned, but it had also spread to her colon. Although she could continue to undergo chemo and radiation, it would only buy her time, not the cure she so desperately wanted. Therefore, with the help of her family, Joey made the hardest decision of her life. She decided to end treatment and return to her home in the care of hospice to live out her final days with her family.
Rory has been documenting Joey’s cancer battle on his blog, This Life I Live , since her diagnosis. He shares frequent updates on Joey’s condition, and touching memories, new and old, of her and her family. Rory also keeps their fans updated on their Facebook page, with links to his blog and new pictures. On Tuesday, Rory shared a sweet photo of his wife and daughter wearing matching pigtail hats. In the side-by-side photo, Joey can be seen sitting in her hospice bed wearing a purple hat with brown braids. Indiana, on the other hand, is riding through their house on a “second-hand tricycle,” wearing a pink hat with blonde braids.
On Monday, Rory shared a new post on his blog titled “braver than me.” In the post, he discussed an important decision that he and Joey had made. While Rory has been sharing many details about Joey and her battle, there are some things he has held back on for fear that it would upset his wife.
Although Rory says Joey is as beautiful as ever, she doesn’t always feel that way. She has lost her hair, and has become very thin. Because of this, Rory has been careful about what pictures he shares of his wife, making sure that their fans remember her before the cancer took over her body.
“Like any woman, my wife is self-conscious about what cancer has done to her,” Rory wrote. “Who she sees in the mirror these days looks like someone else … not the woman that she feels like she is inside. And it hurts her deeply.”
“I know that,” he continued. “So, I carefully choose what I share. It would break my heart to have the thousands of ‘before’ photos out there of her looking beautiful and healthy all these years … be replaced in people’s minds and hearts by a single ‘after’ photo of what cancer has done.”
Rory explained that he and Joey recently talked about how much was too much to share. While Rory has tried hard to protect his wife, he said she is braver than him, and wants to continue to share her journey — “the good, the bad, and the beautiful.”
“It’s like questioning God about the twists and turns he’s brought into our life in the last few years … and asking Him ‘how much is too much?’ ” Rory wrote. “Sometimes I feel like shouting, ‘we get it God … you’re in control. Life is fragile and all we have is today.’ But He just keeps bringing more story and more pain, and more beauty … all at the exact same time. So together, we made some decisions. This is our life. It’s what He has given us to live. And share.”
[Photo by Richard Vogel/Associated Press]