Joey+Rory: Heartbreaking News From Rory Feek, As Joey Has Passed Away

Joey Feek passed away at 2:30 p.m. this afternoon, as reported Nash Country Weekly. She was the wife and duo partner of Rory Feek and had been clinging to life in home hospice. She was surrounded by family when she took her last breath. Us Weekly and Hollywood Life, and many more publications had been reporting on how little time the new mother had left on this earth.

Joey Feek was diagnosed with cervical cancer shortly after she gave birth at the age of 38 to her baby daughter, Indiana, who was born with Down syndrome. At the time, both Joey and Rory Feek said they wouldn’t have done anything differently had they known that Indy was Down syndrome before she was born. They speak often about what a “gift” Indy has been during this time of strife.

When Joey went for her six week checkup, the doctor discovered a mass on her cervix. A biopsy was performed and Joey and Rory were given the sad news that it was malignant cancer. A hysterectomy was performed and Joey went home, healed and got on with her life. Six months later, she started having some other health issues and it was discovered that the cancer had not only come back but was back with a vengeance.

She sought treatment at the Cancer Treatment Center of America in Chicago and then transferred her treatment to the Cancer Treatment Center of America in Georgia as it was a car ride for the couple from their home in Tennessee. That car ride became too much during Joey’s treatments so the couple took a temporary residence in Georgia near the treatment center.

In October of 2015, Joey was told that the current treatment plan was not working. The couple opted to not have any other treatment and decided to go to the state of Indiana where Joey was born and raised to have a nice long visit with her family.

While visiting, Joey’s health took a turn for the worse and Joey and Rory decided to stay in Indiana close to her family to live out the rest of her life there. They enjoyed the holidays as best they could under the circumstances. People visited from Tennessee and were driven up in the couple’s tour bus by their bus driver and good friend. Those people said their goodbyes. At that time, Joey’s hand-made casket, which was made by one of their friends, was delivered.

Joey and Rory have always lived their lives their way and this cancer was not about to stop them from doing that. They had a visit from Santa Claus and Joey and Rory both got to see their baby daughter interact with Santa Claus in the privacy of their temporary home.

Joey and Rory have, in the past three months, been nominated for a Grammy, nominated for an Academy of Country Music Award, and received an award from the local government in Indiana. They got to spend one more Christmas together, one more New Years together, and one more very special Valentine’s Day together.

Rory talks about the meaning behind these things in his eloquent and touching blog, “This Life I Live.” In this blog he talks about his wife getting to live her dreams and making it to all the milestones she had made for herself when she arrived in Indiana this past fall.

Joey and Rory had planned Joey’s funeral, decided where her final resting place would be, and even what should be planted in the spring gardens at their farm in Tennessee. Joey loved her gardens so much and it was one of her favorite places to be in the springtime.

The last and most important milestone for Joey was to make it to her daughter Indiana’s second birthday on February 17, 2016, and she made it. Shortly after that grand birthday celebration, Joey grew very weak and this is what her husband had to say about it.

“Joey has done all she set out to do… even right to the very end, and by sheer will-power (and God’s grace), she was still here to see our baby’s 2nd birthday. Over the last number of weeks her pain had gotten worse and her health had continued to decline rapidly. And not long after Indy’s birthday my wife decided that ‘enough is enough’. She was ready to stop fighting and she told me so. She said the flowers would soon be blooming back in Tennessee. It’s time to go home.”

Rory did have the opportunity to tell Joey that their new CD had made it to No. 1 on the Billboard charts before she drifted off into a deep sleep that she did not wake from. Joey got to give her daughter one last kiss before going to sleep.

There is nothing left to do now but pray for Rory, Indiana, and the rest of their family. The Joey+Rory CD is available on iTunes, Amazon, and their website and ordering one is a great way to help this family financially at this sad time in their lives. The CD and DVD is called, Joey+Rory Hymns That Are Important To Us, and you can get it from Amazon or their website.