Rory Feek and his daughter, Indiana, celebrated Mother’s Day just like anyone else on Sunday (May 9): A new blog post shows photos of 7-year-old Indy bringing flowers and a handmade card to her mother, Joey’s, gravesite.
Joey Feek lies on the family farm in rural Tennessee. She’s remembered with a simple wooden cross, but two benches frame where she’s been buried since March 2016. Father and daughter visit often, but they brought extra special flowers on Mother’s Day:
“For the last five years, it’s not the Mother’s Day she wishes she could have, or I wish for her,” Feek, formerly of the country duo Joey and Rory, writes. “But … she can feel her Mama close to her and so can I. And even though Indy can’t see her or tell her how much she loves her in person, I think her Mama knows.”
Pictures from a blog post entry called “Motherless Day” set the scene. Indy is in a blue and white checkered dress as she offers her mother a heart-shaped card with a photo of the two of them inside. “I love you” she writes at the top, and on the back is a second special message:
“I miss you.”
Rory Feek shares how his older daughters Heidi and Hopie have stepped in to fill the role left open when Joey’s cancer battle ended. He also names a few other family members, from his sisters to the little girl’s aunts, who have pitched in.
“It’s never the same as getting to grow up with your mother I know, but still, it’s good,” he writes. “Really really good. And Indy is doing so well. I think her Mama would be … is … proud of her. I know I am.”
This spring, Rory Feek will release his first solo album since his wife’s death. Gentle Man drops on June 18.
Remembering Joey + Rory, the Couple and Singing Duo: