Rory Feek says Joey is "going home soon"
ALEXANDRIA, Ind. -- Joey Feek is "going home soon."
Rory Feek, one half of their country music duo, wrote on their blog "This Life I Live," that Joey's days are numbered, and she has said goodbye to her family.
"There were lots of tears as she explained to each one how much she loved them and that she was going to be going home soon," Rory wrote. "That her time here was done and she was going to go to sleep soon."
Joey, 40, was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2014, just months after giving birth to the couple's daughter, Indiana, who was born with Down syndrome.
After Joey said goodbye to her mother, father and three sisters, she asked Rory to bring in Indiana.
"And so... I set our little Indy on Joey's lap and we all cried with my wife as she told her how much her mama loved her and, '...you be a big girl for your papa... and that mama will be watching over you.' And then she pulled Indiana up and she kissed her," Rory wrote. "One last kiss."
Rory said that Joey has been asleep for days now and her body is shutting down quickly.
"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," he wrote.
Rory said Joey has done all she set out to do, even right to the very end.
"Over the last number of weeks her pain had gotten worse and her health had continued to decline rapidly," he wrote. "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."
In Joey's 40 short years, she has accomplished many great things, and lived a very full life, Rory said.
"But even more than that, she has loved those around her greatly and been loved greatly in return. I can honestly say that Joey's isn't just a life well-lived, it's a life well-loved," he wrote.
The artists' version of the song "If I Needed You" was nominated for a Grammy award for the "Best Country Duo/Group Performance," this year.
In their song "To Say Goodbye," Joey and Rory sing about an elderly man whose wife has Alzheimer's disease. Though the circumstances are slightly different, the lyrics seem to still ring true.
"She wants to tell him that she loves him so," Joey sings, "and will until the day she dies."