Rory Feek and Daughter Indiana 'Are Trying to Adjust' to Life After Joey's Death: We Are 'Desperately Missing' Her

The musician believes his late wife is "looking down each morning as I take Indy" to preschool

Photo: Rory Feek

Three weeks after Joey Feek died from cancer, her husband Rory is opening up about his heartbreak.

“Indy and I are trying to adjust to our new life at home,” writes Rory, 50, of his next chapter with the couple’s 2-year-old daughter Indiana on his blog This Life I Live Friday. “[We are trying to adjust] to the empty chair at our table and pillow on the other side of my bed, desperately missing Joey and carrying her in our hearts with us everywhere we go.”

After Joey took her last breath in her hometown of Alexandria, Indiana, on March 4, Rory and Indiana headed home to the family’s farmhouse in Pottsville, Tennessee. Four days later, Joey was laid to rest in an emotional funeral service, and the tributes continued at a packed memorial at her former high school on March 13.

With his final goodbye in the past, Rory is focusing on their daughter Indy, who was born with Down syndrome mere months before Joey’s cervical cancer diagnosis in 2014. Prior to her death, Joey helped Rory research preschools and plan her schooling. The couple selected High Hopes, located 25 minutes from their home, after being touched by the developmental center’s work with children.

“When I showed this video about their program to Joey, she wiped the tears from her eyes and with a beautiful smile said, ‘That’s the one honey … That’s the one.'”

Now, Rory says he believes Joey is “looking down each morning as I take Indy into High Hopes, still smiling saying, ‘That’s the one honey … That’s the one.'”

Rory explains that little Indy – whose late mom used to practice sign language with her in hospice care – “is loving every minute” at school, where she is “making lots of new friends and loves being around all the other kids.”

Two of Indy’s main goals at the school are to learn to walk at physical therapy and “start turning all the words that she can say with her hands into sentences she can say with her mouth” in speech therapy.

Adds Rory: “I can hardly imagine how special it will be when the time finally comes that she can walk beside me and talk with me.”