Rory Feek: Joey Is ‘More Frail Than Ever’
Joey Feek is "more frail than ever," but she is helping her husband Rory plan their spring garden.
“That’s Important To Me” is a song that highlights some things that people hold dear to their lives. When Joey + Rory released the song back in 2010, they weren’t sure if other people would be able to relate, but little did they know how much it’d mean to others.
“When we recorded that song, I think some people in music industry thought it was too simple-minded, not cutting edge enough,” Rory wrote in his blog, This Life I Live. “I felt just the opposite. I believed it was a bold statement – a woman singing about feeding her family a home-cooked meal, staying out of debt, or trying to be the best mother she can be. In a culture that seems to scream ‘more, more’ and ‘faster, faster’… I knew Joey wasn’t just singing about what was important to her, she was singing about what’s important to millions of wives and mothers and girls all around the world. The song didn’t really make any kind of a dent in the Billboard charts, but it made a difference in a lot of lives. It still does.”
For the GRAMMY-nominated couple, recognizing the things that are important is an even bigger challenge this year. As they continue to wage war on Joey’s aggressive cervical cancer, she’s begin preparing for life after she passes and they’re starting with her spring garden.
“I take notes in my laptop, but I don’t really want to know. Not really,” he wrote. “I just want her to be able to be in the garden – this year and twenty more after it. I want her to be able to weed and water and hoe and harvest, and to be able to can and freeze the fruit of her labor and feel the pride that she’s felt in the past at knowing that ‘these sweet potatoes and beans and tomatoes are from our land’…from her hands.”
Despite him not wanting to learn about how and when to plant the vegetable garden, Rory sits beside his bride and soaks in all of the information he can.
“I sit beside her and smile and listen and take notes. And I will keep the garden going. Joey’s garden. And I’m sure in time, I will learn to love it too. Because she loved it. And part of her will be with us… in every seed we plant, and every vegetable we harvest … and every bite we take.”
The hardest part for the songwriter is knowing that his wife may not see the end-result of her hard work.
“So thin and gaunt, and more frail than ever, my wife is sowing her seeds – putting down roots in the soil of our lives and hearts. Getting us ready for something that we can’t see right now for the tears in our eyes… something she might not even get to see at all. Spring.”
JOEY+RORY - "Thats Important To Me" from Hickory Films on Vimeo.
