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Joey Feek Cancer Update: Joey Receives Visit From Bill Gaither, Listening To Hymns Days Before Grammy Awards

By Lindsay McCane
Published on: 13:17 PST, Feb 11, 2016

Joey Feek is still battling terminal cancer, but is trying to stay strong as three major milestones are happening in the coming week. In the time being, Joey is taking the opportunity to spend time with her friends and family, and welcomed her close friend Bill Gaither into her home on Thursday.

Rory shared a photo of Joey and Bill on their Facebook page, and captioned it by saying, “…’Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior’ – Joey and Bill Gaither enjoying the beautiful view this morning, just after he played that hymn for her on the piano.”

According to Rory’s blog This Life I Live, Joey and Rory have been friends with Bill and his wife Gloria for a long time, and over the years they have become a part of their family.

https://www.facebook.com/joeyandrory/photos/a.160496172815.130528.15044507815/10153405540052816/?type=3&permPage=1

“Bill comes to see Joey just about every day, when he’s not on the road,” Rory wrote in a January post titled “seeing the light.” “We’ll get a knock on the door in the morning or early afternoon, and next thing you know Bill will be parked in a chair beside Joey’s bed, telling her jokes and stories about days long-past and he’ll have Joey and all of us laughing and smiling ’til our faces hurt. I think he just wants to brighten Joey’s day and create as much joy for her as he can. We all do.”

As the Inquisitr previously reported, Joey Feek was diagnosed with stage four cervical cancer in May 2014, three months after giving birth to her daughter Indiana. She later underwent a radical hysterectomy and rounds of chemotherapy and radiation to treat the disease. Although she appeared to be getting better, an October 2015 scan revealed that her cancer had returned and was spreading aggressively throughout her body. Joey’s doctors told her she could continue to undergo radiation and chemo, but it would only buy her a little more time; it would not give her the cure she had been hoping and praying for. Therefore, Joey made the heartbreaking decision to stop treatment and return to her home in hospice care to spend the remainder of her days with her family and friends.

Despite Joey’s condition and prognosis, she is trying her hardest to see three final things before she’s gone. Joey and her husband Rory Feek, both of the duo Joey+Rory, will be releasing their final and most important album, Hymns That Are Important To Us, on Friday, February 12. The album, which Rory refers to as “Joey’s album,” will feature a collection of the duo’s favorite hymns and will be available at all Cracker Barrel stores across the United States.

According to a previous report by the Inquisitr, Joey+Rory were also nominated this year for a Grammy Award in the Vocal Duo of the Year category for their version of the song “If I Needed You.” The duo recorded the song to celebrate the day their daughter was born, and used it as the background song in Indiana’s birth video. The song received no airtime, according to Rory, which made it even more shocking to the couple that it would receive a nomination.

“…woke my bride up this morning with a baby in my arms and the news that our version of ‘If I Needed You’ was nominated for a Grammy,” Rory wrote in a December Facebook post. “As her excitement and tears flowed into mine. She said, ‘how can that be?’ ….the song received no radio airplay… no press… no critical acclaim… and the only music video we made for it was to celebrate the day our little Indiana was born. God is so good. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

“If I Needed You” – Joey+Rory from Hickory Films on Vimeo.

Finally, Joey and Rory’s daughter Indiana (Indy for short) will be celebrating her second birthday on Wednesday, February 17. Indiana Boone Feek was born on February 17, 2014. She weighed in at eight pounds two ounces, and was 20 inches long. Throughout her pregnancy, Joey read book after book, preparing herself for the birth of her baby (the duo opted to wait to find out the sex until the birth). Joey and Rory decide to use a midwife to welcome their daughter at home, and described the birth as flawless.

“Although that news came at first as a surprise to us, Joey and I wouldn’t have changed a thing,” Rory wrote at the time. “During the pregnancy, we never did an ultrasound, or saw a doctor, nor would it have made any difference if we had. We trusted that God would give us the baby He wanted us to have… and He has. Out of all the parents in the world, He has chosen us to care for and raise this special gift.”

[Photo by Jason Merritt/ Getty Images]

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