Joey Feek is preparing her family on what 'to remember after she's gone'

It was love at first song for Joey Feek. The ailing country star first laid eyes on her husband Rory Feek back in 2002 at the Bluebird Café in Nashville. In a new interview with People magazine, the 40-year-old admitted, "From the first song Rory sang, I fell head over heels for him."

Joey added, "I didn't even know him, but something inside me said, 'You're going to marry that man and spend the rest of your lives together.'"

Photo: ThisLifeILive.com

Now, 14 years after that initial meeting, the duo continues to make sweet music together while being thrown some curveballs along the way. Since being diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2014 and stopping treatment after it returned in 2015, Joey continues to cherish the remaining moments with her beloved and their almost 2-year-old daughter Indiana as she is in hospice care in her hometown of Alexandria, Indiana.

Throughout the ordeal, Rory has been documenting his wife’s battle and touching family moments on his blog This Life I Live. And as the days carry on, she is already thinking about her family's future once she is gone. "As Joey has had to learn to come to terms with what is happening to her body and what the future holds, it's been important to her to share some things that she wants me and our girls to remember after she's gone," Rory said to the magazine. "More than once, I have found myself beside her bed taking notes as she shares things like when the best time to plant the garden will be this spring, how to prune the fruit trees and to make sure we still set aside a percentage of what we make as a tithe each month."

Photo: Getty Images

The doting husband admitted he "never dreamed" he would have found himself in this situation. “I'm 10 years older than Joey and I always knew that when I get old or if something were to happen to me, Joey would be there beside me no matter what," Rory said. "No matter how hard it was, no matter how I looked or what we faced, she would be there. But I never dreamed that the roles might be reversed and life might require those things from me."

He continued, "For better or worse aren't just words you say anymore. Because of all Joey is going through, it's given me the opportunity to live them every day, and follow through and mean the words I said to her at the altar.”

Photo: Instagram/@roryandjoey

Until her final day, Joey will continue to be surrounded by family in her hometown. Rory said, "Life is a revolving door of sisters, parents and nieces and nephews – all pouring love and time into Joey and our little family."

While the circumstances that brought everyone together are difficult, the singer's husband admitted, "It has been a really beautiful time for Joey and all of us." He added, "Not hardly an hour of the day goes by without someone telling someone else that they love them. It's hard to ask for more than that."

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