Country singer faces her last days
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Holly Yan, CNN Newswire
(CNN) — She wanted to live long enough to see her daughter’s 2nd birthday. And she did.
But Joey Feek, one-half of the country duo Joey + Rory, has only has a few more days to live, her husband Rory Feek wrote.
“My wife has been asleep for days now and her body is shutting down quickly,” Feek wrote Monday on his blog, This Life I Live.
“The hospice nurse came again this morning and said Joey will most-likely only be with us for a few more days… at the most.”
Over the past few years, the Feeks’ journey has alternated between ecstatic highs and heartbreaking lows.
In 2014, the couple welcomed their daughter Indiana — named after Joey Feek’s home state. Indiana was diagnosed with Down Syndrome not long after her birth.
A few months later, the couple learned Joey Feek had cervical cancer. Despite intensive treatments and surgery, the cancer spread to her colon and became terminal.
In November, the couple decided to end treatments for Joey’s stage 4 cancer. Her doctors told her there was nothing more they could do for her. Joey Feek was moved to hospice care in Indiana.
Last fall, Rory Feek wrote of his wife’s strength despite her confinement to bed.
“There isn’t a day that goes by that she doesn’t look me and her family in the eye and say ‘I’m gonna beat this,’ or ‘I’m getting better, I believe that,’ ” he wrote at the time.
He also shared images of his wife spending time with their young daughter and dancing with him.
“A few days ago, on the last day Joey walked, I took her in my arms in the living room and once more put her hand in mine and we danced,” he wrote.
“She steadied with her cane and I softly moved her across the room singing George Strait’s “You Look So Good In Love” in her ear. In the middle of the song though, as I was being careful not to step on her toes — she stopped and looked up at me and said, ‘How about if I lead?’ ”
Love story
The couple met at a songwriting even in 2002. Six years later, their path to stardom began after they competed on CMT’s music competition show “Can You Duet.”
Their first single, “Cheater, Cheater,” had a popular video with a cameo by Naomi Judd. The couple also appeared in commercials for Overstock.com.
And despite Joey’s terminal illness, the couple earned a 2016 Grammy nomination for their performance of “If I Needed You.”
In his latest blog post, Rory Feek wrote about how proud he was of his wife’s accomplishments.
“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 to see our baby’s 2nd birthday,” he wrote Monday.
“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.”