Rory Feek Says ‘Dying’ Wife Joey Feek Is ‘Ready To Come Home’

Joey Feek is preparing to say goodbye.

In a heart-wrenching blog entry shared on Saturday, the terminally ill country singer’s husband and musical partner, Rory, told fans that his longtime love believes she’s entered her final days. 

“Here I sit beside my dying wife,” he wrote. “I don’t say those words lightly. As a matter-of-fact, I haven’t said them at all. But my beautiful bride has said them to me.”

Rory-Lee-Feek-and-Joey-Martin-Feek-of-Joey-Rory-arrive-at-the-48th-Annual-Academy-of-Country-Music-Awards-at-the-MGM-Grand-Garden-Arena-on-April-7-2013-in-Las-Vegas
(Getty Images)

First diagnosed with stage four cancer in 2014, Joey’s illness returned a year later despite the 40-year-old having undergone multiple aggressive procedures.

After doctors told her she had just months to live, Joey opted to stop treatment altogether. In November, she returned to her childhood home in Nashville to begin hospice care.

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Since then, it’s become increasingly difficult for Joey to manage her daily pain and discomfort, Rory wrote. He added that her morphine dose has “quadrupled in the last four days.”

Now, Rory revealed, his wife has come to terms with her fate – and, sadly, he’s realized it’s time for him to do the same.

“I’d like to tell you that she’s doing great and is going to beat this thing.  But I can’t,” he wrote. “Yesterday with tears in her eyes and mine, Joey held my hand and told me that she has been having serious talks with Jesus. She said she told him that if He’s ready to take her… she’s ready to come home.”

Rory’s emotional post also acknowledged a song he and Joey recorded in 2012 called “When I’m Gone,” a moving ballad about loss written from the perspective of someone nearing death. The music video, shot well before Joey’s health crisis, shows her singing the powerful lyrics to Rory.

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“And so the cameras rolled and both Joey and I let us ourselves imagine what it would be like if she had to leave this world and I was left behind without her,” Rory recalled of the production. “Our ‘make-believe’ song and video seems to be coming true. Some call it ‘life imitating art’. I don’t. I call it God.” 

Although the song now carries much deeper and more personal significance, Rory said he harbors no bitterness. Instead, he’s grateful to have such a meaningful memento to cherish.

“Am I angry at the irony of the song? No. How could I be?” he wrote. “How many men who are losing the woman they love get a gift like that? None that I know of.” 

Joey and Rory married in 2002 and share a 23-month-old daughter, Indiana.

In 2010, the pair took home the Academy of Country Music Award for Top New Vocal Duo of the Year. Their next album, “Hymns That Are Important To Us,” is slated for release in February.

— Erin Biglow

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