After nearly two years battling terminal cancer, Joey Feek died on Friday in her hometown of Alexandria, Indiana. The singer, one half of the country-gospel duo Joey + Rory, was 40.
Feek spent the last few months saying her final goodbyes to family and friends as well as spending every last minute with her husband Rory Feek and two-year-old, Indiana. Rory confirmed his wife passed away at 2:30 p.m. on his blog "This Life I Live," where he has documented his final days with his wife.
"My wife's greatest dream came true today. She is in Heaven," he wrote. "The cancer is gone, the pain has ceased and all her tears are dry. Joey is in the arms of her beloved brother Justin and using her pretty voice to sing for her savior."
In May 2014, Joey was diagnosed with cervical cancer, only four months after she gave birth to Indiana, who was born with Down Syndrome. She underwent multiple surgeries, including a radical hysterectomy, plus numerous chemotherapy and radiation treatments.
A CT scan in October 2015 revealed the cancer had spread beyond the point where medicine could help her. She stopped treatments and moved into a hospice facility in November. Joey held on long enough to celebrate her daughter's second birthday and watch the Grammys, which nominated the couple's song "If I Needed You" for Best Country Duo/Group Performance.
Rory and Indiana will return home to their farmhouse in Pottsville, Tenn. to bury Joey. The couple were married for more than 13 years, wedding in June 2002 two months after they had first met.
"It's hard for me to imagine being there without Joey, but at the same time... it is where she wants us to be. It's where she will be... She's gonna be in the mint growing beside our back deck, the sweet-corn frozen in our freezer and a million other places that her hand and heart has touched around our little farmhouse and community. Joey will still be with us. Everywhere," he wrote.
Rory concluded his post writing, "So if it's okay, I'm gonna close, wipe my tears and pack our bags to hit the road headed south. She's already got a head-start on me."
