Terminally ill country music singer Joey Feek of Joey+Rory can chalk up another milestone of living through a Leap Year on Feb. 29, however her husband Rory said on Monday that Joey has been asleep for days and their hospice nurse indicates the body of the 40-year-old courageous cancer battler is shutting down.
"God only gives each of us a certain amount of time to be on this earth and every day when we wake up, we get to decide how we are going to spend those precious minutes and hours. There are no do-overs, no second-chances, no next-time-around's to get it right," wrote Rory.
"Joey knew this and she has made each and every day count. One of the last things Joey said before she drifted into the deep sleep she's been in for a few days now is, 'I have no regrets. I can honestly say, that I have done everything I wanted to do and lived the life I always wanted to live.'"
Rory stated during Leap Day it was difficult for him to write about the situation, partly because everything he writes these days ends up as some tragic news story about their "shocking last days."
He apologized for any sensational headlines, indicating that had not been his intention. "These are just stories, small vignettes from our lives, just like the ones that you and everyone out there are living every day."
He also shared that he was thankful that their story has been shared and shared and shared. "Thankful that because it's being picked up and shared by dozens of news organizations and hundreds of thousands of individuals on Facebook and elsewhere, somehow my wife's life and ultimately her death, might possibly help or encourage someone else somewhere. That this life she's living might impact the life of someone that she and I will never meet, and never see, at least this side of heaven."
Saying he sometimes feels like the boy who cried wolf, he felt badly about writing because the situation has been a long time coming.
"We've been here going through this for months and months now. Though many ups and downs. Nearing the end, doing better, nearing the end again. Hoping. Praying. Believing. But through it all, most of us have known down-deep for awhile now, that the end would eventually come. But we haven't really faced it," Rory wrote.
He said he didn't think they've been in denial, just "filled with hope and living in the moment."
"Because though you know that your loved-one is dying, somehow you find a way to find the good, even in the dying. You say to yourself, she's still here. We're still together. And it's still life. Sort of. But not really. This isn't the kind of life my wife would want to be living. Not if you know her," Rory confided.
He said Joey has done all she set out to do, even right to the very end, and by sheer will-power and God's grace, she was still alive to witness their baby's second birthday.
Not long after Indy's birthday, Rory said Joey decided that 'enough is enough' and that she was ready to stop fighting. "She said the flowers would soon be blooming back in Tennessee. It's time to go home," he said.
Joey gathered her family together around her and she said goodbye to each of them, to her mother and father and her three sisters.
"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. That her time here was done and she was going to go to sleep soon. And then she asked me to bring our baby in. 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. One last kiss.
