Five months after his wife lost her two-year battle with cancer in her cervix, Rory Feek says he does not want to be on stage without her. When CBS’ Anthony Mason asked him whether he had plans to continue writing music, Feek stated that Joey was the one who loved to be on stage performing and that he loved to stand next to her as the world discovered what she had to give.
Rory has been working for the past few months on a documentary about their relationship titled “To Joey, With Love”. He told Mason that he enjoyed the experience of producing the film because he had the opportunity to see his wife every day. The documentary will be released this week.
For the past 14 years, the couple lived on a farm in Postville, Tennessee, where the film is set. Their daughter, Indiana, was born with Down syndrome in 2014 and three months later Joey was diagnosed with cancer. Rory says her faith in God was extraordinary as she believed he had a bigger plan.
Doctors said her cancer gas gone after her first surgery, but it returned. Joey fought to see Indiana’s second birthday and passed away at age 40 just as their album “Hymns That Are Important to Us” made it to the top of the country chart.
The little girl is doing well
“She’ll just sign ‘Mama’ and say ‘Mama’ every once in a while. But usually it’s in the car, ‘cause she wants to hear Mama sing,” he told Mason.
Mason addressed the fact that Feek technically had time to prepare for his wife’s dead, although nothing actually prepares people to face that pain. Rory said he is unsure whether he expected it to be as difficult as it is.
“But I think it’s that heavy when she’s that wonderful”, Rory Feek expressed.
He continued to say he was not ready to let her go and told Mason that he still walks around asking himself whether she is gone forever.
In March, Joey Martin Feek was laid to rest in a cemetery built by the farm’s founder in the 1800s. It is located under a cluster of sassafras trees at the rear of Rory Feek’s 60 acres.
Rory said he did not know the reason why he is not ready to go and order a stone. He is trying to figure out whether a simple wooden cross is what Joey would like. The heartbroken artist has a bench near the spot where his wife’s rests are laying in and said he goes there almost every day.
“I got a place for my coffee and hers. And we still have coffee together,” he revealed.
God brought their lives together
Rory met Joey when she was working at a veterinary clinic, and he was a songwriter and a single father with two young daughters. She had seen him play at a songwriter’s night in Nashville, specifically at the Bluebird Cafe. He told Mason that God helped him meet and marry that beautiful girl as a proof of his existence.
A friend encouraged them to audition for the CMT show Can You Duet in 2008. Rory thought they would not let a man like him stand next to an amazing girl like Joey and have a career together. He was so wrong.
They had a recording contract soon after coming in third in the show. The couple also had their TV show on the RFD network. Rory and Joey converted their barn into a concert hall when their career took off.
Source: CBS News