On March 4, 2016, heaven gained a new angel. Her name was Joey Feek.
Half of the marriage, and country bluegrass duo, Joey + Rory, Joey was diagnosed with stage 4 cervical cancer just months after giving birth to the couple’s daughter, Indiana.
Clinging to their faith and each other, Joey and Rory, along with their close-knit family, set out on a journey they could have never imagined, with an outcome that nobody could predict. They were going to fight this cancer, together.
In the months that followed, Joey spent her time in between treatments and doctor’s visits to begin recording what would be the couple’s final album together: Hymns That Are Important to Us.
And in between caring for his wife, and looking after their growing little girl with Down syndrome, Rory wrote the story of their lives on his blog, “This Life I Live: Scenes from one man’s extraordinary, ordinary life.”
In the year since his wife passed away, Rory has continued to chronicle his life with Joey, and now more than ever, his life with their daughter, Indiana.
This Valentine’s Day, the story of their love and life together will be released as a memoir called This Life I Live.
This Life I Live
While visiting the Today show, and talking about the book, their Grammy and always his wife, Rory shared the number one thing that has gotten him through the tragedy of losing the love of his life: his faith.
When asked by Matt Lauer the message he hopes people take away from their love story, Rory said, “It would be that sometimes, faith changes everything.”
“It doesn’t matter where you came from,” he continues. “I’m an unlikely person to be a part of an amazing love story, and I hope that’s an encouragement to others.”
In addition to his faith, Rory says that the positivity his wife lived out—especially in her final days—is an inspiring nugget that he holds onto.
“My wife, for her to be so positive to the very end—even with a two-year-old playing on the floor—if she can be positive, I have nothing to be upset about, I can be positive.”
