Joey Feek Cancer Update: Joey And Rory To Release Final Album Despite Joey’s Prognosis

Despite Joey Feek’s cancer prognosis, Joey and Rory have decided to release one final album. The album titled Hymns That Are Important to Us is one that is very close to the duo’s hearts, and according to Rory, is “Joey’s album.”

Joey and Rory first announced that they were working on their newest project back in August on their official Facebook page. At the time, Rory shared several photos of his wife recording in the studio.

“…in the studio w my beautiful bride today recording a new album of old hymns. It’s been a dream of Joey’s to do someday. That someday is today,” he wrote.

Joey and Rory have released several other albums including their most popular His and Hers. However, this album is particularly special, as it is a compilation of all of Joey’s favorite hymns that she grew up listening to.

As the Inquisitr previously reported, Joey Feek has been battling stage four cervical cancer since her diagnosis last year. The doctors thought Joey had beat the disease after she underwent a radical hysterectomy and rounds of chemotherapy and radiation, however in mid-October they discovered that her cancer had not only returned, but had spread to her colon. Because there was nothing else for the doctors to do, Joey made the difficult decision to return home to spend her final days with her family in hospice care.

Since Joey’s diagnosis, Rory has been documenting her battle on his blog titled This Life I Live. Most recently, in a post called “manna from heaven,” Rory spoke about their upcoming album, and the emotional moment when Joey realized she wouldn’t be here to help her husband raise their daughter, Indiana.

“We recorded it in a studio in Nashville early in the summer – just after recovering from her first big surgery in Chicago,” Rory said of Hymns That Are Important To Us. “And then she did her vocals where she could… in hotel rooms, our house, wherever and whenever she felt up to singing. In early October, we even did a tv taping of the songs in the concert hall at our farm in front of a live audience. Joey was weak and it was difficult for her, but she was determined. This record means so much to her. It is the songs that are the most important to her.”

Joey has been fighting so hard, and trying to live each day making memories with her family. Although she is generally able to put on a strong front, and insists she is not angry at God, there are moments when things are just too much for her to handle. Rory described one of those emotional moments in his post.

Rory explained that his friend had sent him a picture of his daughter, Scout, who has Loeys-Dietz Syndrome, riding a horse, and captioned the photo by saying: “Scout can’t wait until Indiana joins her at camp.” When Joey saw the picture, and read the words, something clicked.

“I wasn’t sure what had happened – what the pain was that she was feeling – so I tried to put my arms around her and asked, ‘what’s wrong,’ and then through her tears, she said the words….” Rory wrote, adding, “…the words that are the hardest, most-difficult part of all that she, and we, are going through: ‘I want to raise our baby,’ she cried, and her tears fell harder… ‘I want to be the one to teach her.'”

Hymns That Are Important To Us will be available for purchase on Valentine’s Day. Currently there is no pre-order information available for Joey and Rory’s newest album.

[Photo by Josh Anderson/Associated Press]