Rory Feek / YouTube
Eight years after his beloved wife and singing partner, Joey Feek, passed away after a courageous battle with cancer, he has re-wed. In February, Rory wrote about finding new love in an unexpected place in a blog post titled “Love Comes Softly.”
“This coming week will be eight years since Joey passed away… In some ways, it feels as if nothing’s changed… but in other ways, it feels like everything has. But the truth is, it’s a little bit of both,” he wrote.
Joey passed away on March 1, 2016, after battling cancer for two years. They shared a daughter named Indiana, who everyone lovingly calls “Indy.” She is now 10 years old.
He then revealed that he had begun dating a woman named Rebecca, who was the teacher in the schoolhouse on his property.
“Rebecca has been in our life for the last five years, although most of that was her just across the field from me in the one-room schoolhouse, where she’s been teaching my little one and a dozen other children. And though we’ve known each other for a long while, and I’ve always thought highly of her, I never really knew her.”
It took Rory a very long time to realize that finding love again wasn’t betraying his late wife. In fact, it’s what she wanted. When she got sick for the second time, Joey knew she may not make it, so she told him something he never thought she’d say.
“She looked at me and said, ‘If I don’t make it… I want you to love again.’… I told her, “I don’t want to hear that.” But she gently held my hand and said, “I want you to. You’ll need someone. You and Indy both will.”
Rory shared the news in a blog post titled “the wedding singer.” He was the wedding singer, having sung his vows to his new bride, much to her surprise.
He explained that the wedding would not have taken place had it not been for Indy. He never wanted her relationship with her late mama to be affected by a new woman in their lives. He and Rebecca had committed to be together and marriage was a possibility, but only if and when Indy was on board. Turns out, the wedding was entirely her idea!
One morning as Rory, Rebecca, and Indy were praying together, Indy told her teacher, “Ms. Rebecca, I think you should marry Papa.” She then turned to her dad and said, “And I told Miss Rebecca that my Mama’s been gone a long time. And if she marries you, maybe she could be my new mother.”
Rory and Rebecca were married on Sunday, July 14 in Greycliff, Montana surrounded by family and friends. Watch Rory sing his vows in a song titled “I Do,” in the video below.
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