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Easter Sunday was bittersweet for Rory and Indiana Feek. The day marked the first time the father-daughter pair would celebrate Joey Feek's "favorite holiday" without her.
“I can’t helpbut think of my bride today,” the 49-year-old penned on his blog This Life I Live. “To remember all the Easter’s we’vespent together over the years and what this morning would be like if she werestill here with us. What it would mean to her to share Easter this yearwith our two-year-old. It would be so, so special.”
CLICK TO VIEW INDIANA AND RORY'S SWEETEST DADDY-DAUGHTER MOMENTS
Photo: Instagram.com/@Rory andJoey
The doting father shared a snap on March 27 with his little girl. He captioned the sweet photo, "My little bundle of Joey."
Joey passedaway earlier this month after losing her battle to cervical cancer. Since herpassing, Rory noted in his most recent blog post that the couple’s young daughter has yet to askfor her mother. “Indy hasnot asked for her mama. Not one single time since Joey’s been gone,” he revealed. “It’s almost as if she hasn’t noticed that she’snot here. And that is so sad… and oh, so wonderful – all at the sametime.”
Prior to entering hospice care inthe fall, Rory admitted that “Joey was Indy’swhole world” and everyone else was “just everyone else,” including him.He said, “[Indiana] loved her mama so much and all she wanted was to be with her,beside her or in-sight of her.” However once Joey’s health took a turn for theworse, she decided, “He must become greater and I must become less.”
Photo: ThisLifeILive.com
“[Joey] started going against everythingin her being that told her ‘time was short' so hold her baby even tighter… andlonger… and more… and instead – she handed the baby to me, and sat alone in abed and watched and listened as my relationship with Indy grew…and herslessoned,” Rory wrote. “She let Indy fall more in love with me…and less in lovewith her. She carried the pain on her own shoulders, to try to keep itoff of mine.”
He continued, “Don’t get me wrong,there were still lots of times in those last few months that I put Indy in hermama’s lap and they spent time together, loving and enjoying each other. But it was never the same. Indiana loved her mama… but she wantedme. She needed me.”
While the toddler, who recently started preschool, doesn’t fully understand the events that have transpired,she does visit her "mama" everyday with Rory. At Joey's grave, Indiana plays in the grassbeside the flowers, listening and “talking with her hands.” During their daily visits, Rorysaid, “For a little bit, we’re a family again. Indy is on Joey’s lap andthe world is right.”