Last year at Christmas time, Joey + Rory made sure to treasure every second they spent together. Just months prior, Joey received the news that her cancer was no longer responding to treatments. She made the decision to return home to spend her final days with her family, but no one knew if she’d still be there for Christmas.
However, Joey beat the odds and made it to share one last Christmas with her family. In fact, Christmas was one of the days that Joey felt her best. She sat and read a story to her daughter Indy and watched her family open presents.
Less than months later on March 4, Joey passed away. Although she wasn’t here to celebrate Christmas with them this year, Rory and little Indy still felt her presence with them throughout the entire Christmas season.
Writing on his blog, This Life I Live, Rory said that they spent their first Christmas without Joey with her family in Indiana. He said that he started to write a blog post about the trip, but he felt that no words really captured it. Instead, he decided to share a short video of his Christmas with Indy, along with a few pictures on Instagram.
An adorable photo Rory shared on Christmas day shows Indy standing in her crib wearing festive Christmas pajamas and a bright smile. Rory wrote that this Christmas, no gift under the tree was greater than his little girl.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BOcRwu0jb-c/
Joey was at the heart of Rory’s Christmas, as made clear in a tearjerking photo he shared on December 26. The photo shows Rory sitting in front of Joey’s grave, with his head buried in his hand and his trusty dog by his side. Despite being December, the sky was bright blue and sun creeped through the fluffy clouds that hung in the distance. Since the photo spoke for itself, Rory kept its caption simple, writing “…a farmhouse Christmas.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BOgZqtuD5MF/
The video that Rory shared on his blog shows the trip that he and Indy took up to Indiana to visit Joey’s family. Heartwarming clips of their Christmas play throughout the video, as Rory narrates it in the style of the popular Christmas story, Twas the Night Before Christmas.
Rory and Indy can be seen enjoying food and fun times with Joey’s family, though they were always aware of the one person who couldn’t be there with them. To remember Joey, Rory and Indy sat in her family’s home one day and watched old home movies with her in them. The look on Indy’s face when she saw her mama appear on the screen was priceless.
Tune in below to see the touching video Rory put together to capture his Christmas this year. We’re continuing to keep him and Indy in our prayers.