Christian country singer Rory Feek, who lost his wife and singing partner Joey this March due to cervical cancer, celebrated their wedding anniversary on June 15 by going to her grave, talking to her just like old times, and giving her a special gift.
"I have never been a great gift-giver," Rory admits on his blog. "Like most men, when Valentine's Day or a birthday rolls around, I would scramble to find 'just the right gift' at 5 p.m. on my way home from work, or walking through Walmart or Target the night before. It's embarrassing, actually. For me, and for a lot of guys I think."
However, there are times when Rory did well. One of his best gifts for Joey was given during their fifth wedding anniversary, where he bought a beautiful antique ring from Walton's, Joey's favourite jewellery store.
"Joey treasured that ring and how it symbolised our first five years of commitment to each other. But in the end, she gave it away. One evening this past fall, she just quietly slipped it on our oldest daughter Heidi's hand and said, 'This is yours now... I want you to have it.'"
Even now that Joey is gone, Rory did not like to let their anniversary pass without a special gift. He thought for months what act of love he could do that would make his wife happy if she were still alive. With the help of Provident Films in Nashville, he came up with the perfect idea.
"I am going to try to give her a gift that is pretty much impossible... to live on, even after she's gone," he says. Rory says he has been documenting their life together through his blog, pictures, and home videos, but the people from Provident Films offered to make it into a film called "To Joey, With Love."
The documentary starts a few weeks before their daughter Indiana was born in February of 2014, and runs until this past spring. Rory says it is "a film about our lives during that two-and-a-half years. Our love. Our struggles. And even more so, about our faith in God and our hope in a plan... bigger than the one we can see with our own eyes."
