Terminally Ill Joey Martin Feek Still Believes in Prayer

 

100704-A-9737A-060 GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba (July 4, 2010) The country music group, Joey and Rory, perform for service members at Joint Task Force Guantanamo and the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay community. The event was sponsored by the base Morale, Welfare and Recreation office. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Tiffany Addair/Released)
100704-A-9737A-060
GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba (July 4, 2010) The country music group, Joey and Rory, perform for service members at Joint Task Force Guantanamo and the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay community. The event was sponsored by the base Morale, Welfare and Recreation office. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Tiffany Addair/Released)

Christian country music singer Joey Martin Feek’s battle with terminal cancer is now a painful waiting game filled with inspiration. In the midst of that battle however, she prays “one morning that I just don’t wake up.”

In May 2014, the country music star of the duo Joey and Rory was diagnosed with cervical cancer according to The Tennessean.  She underwent a radical hysterectomy to treat the disease last summer but the cancer returned a year later. Despite more surgeries and aggressive treatment, her cancer has continued to grow.

In October, her family opted to stop cancer treatment. At the time, her doctors had given her about six to nine months to live. In the interview published two weeks ago by The Tennessean, her window of life had grown smaller.

Learning of her prognosis, said Joey, caused her to be greatly disappointed in God because she was hoping to beat the disease.

“I wasn’t mad at him, I wasn’t upset,” she told The Tennessean on her reaction to the news that her cancer had returned. “I was just greatly disappointed. I really thought we had it. I thought, ‘I’m going to be that exception. I’m going to be that statistic that stands out and says, ‘She fought it.’ We did the most extreme surgery we can do in the gynecologic world, and she did well.’ But for whatever reason, it wasn’t enough, and God had different plans. I was disappointed. I was exhausted.

“More than anything, I felt like I failed at something,” she added crying.

Joey Martin Feek -Facebook - July - hospital“I thought I did everything but God decided for me that my job of singing for people down here is my legacy, and he needs me singing up there. That’s how I look at it,” she said.

Joey wanted to return to her Nashville-area farm and return to childhood home and “love on” her family after learning that she did not have a lot of time left. She wanted to spend her last days in the same room in which she gave birth to her daughter Indiana.

“It’s where God gives and He taketh away,” she said.

After a new series of cancer related problems however, Joey decided to remain in her hometown in Indiana.

“I said, Rory, if it’s OK with you, this is where I was born, it’s where I was raised, and this is where I die,” she explained. “He said, ‘Whatever you want.’ I said, ‘That’s what I want.’ ”

As she battles through her illness however, Joey has inspired her father. In October he went to the altar and surrendered his life to God.

“I just cried,” Joey said. “Now all of my family believes. And all of my family, when we die, we’re going to see each other again. I told my dad, ‘I would go through all of this again, if that meant one person came to Christ because of it. The fact that my daddy did, Dad, I would do it all over. I’m so proud of you. When I die, I’m going to be looking for you. And I want you to know, that after you hug my brother (Justin, who died in a car accident in 1994), I’m going to be next in line.’ ”

Joey Martin Feek.
Joey Martin Feek.

In a blog post on Sunday, Joey’s husband Rory said she can no longer get out of bed and hopes she will live a lot longer than conditions indicate.

“A hospice nurse comes once or twice a week and she helps to make sure that Joey’s pain is under control – that her morphine drip is working properly – and to see if she and we, her caregivers, need anything. But God chooses the appointed time.  Not us.   Not hospice,” he wrote. “My wife is strong.  Very very strong.  So is her will to live.  Especially with a little one who gets excited every morning to see her.”

Two weeks ago, Joey told The Tennessean she wasn’t afraid to die. She was only worried about the pain, how much she’ll have to endure and for how long.

“I’m doing all these alternative things and taking things I’ve never taken before, organic, all natural, and homeopathic, it can’t hurt,” she said. “I’m doing all I can do to be more comfortable.

“I pray that one morning I just don’t wake up,” she noted. “But I don’t fear anything because I’m so close to God and we’ve talked about it so many times. I know he’s close. And I know he loves me. I’m really at peace. I still believe there’s healing in prayer.”

 

 

 

(Visited 1,244 times, 1 visits today)

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*