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Joey Feek’s hometown rallying around singer

ALEXANDRIA, Ind. (WISH) – Many in Joey Feek’s hometown are praising her after learning she likely has only a few days to live.

Joey has been fighting cancer and, according to a blog post from her husband, she has been asleep for days and her body is shutting down.

Rory Feek wrote that Joey said goodbye to her family and kissed her daughter, Indiana, one last time.

The students at Alexandria-Monroe High School know Joey once played on their basketball court. They walk down the halls and see her in a Tigers jersey in the team pictures hanging on the wall.

Coach Jon Howell remembers more than a basketball player.

“She didn’t just sing, she was pure country even as a young child,” Howell said. “She was a tremendous talent from the start.”

Howell remembers a hard worker and a leader.

That’s why he taped a picture of Joey to his office door, along with the message “Find someone strong, confident, intelligent, faithful, and learn.”

“It’s all about people paying attention to her life and how she’s chosen to live it at the end,” Howell said.

Joey touched people across the world with her music, but Nancy Cook remembers her as the little girl her kids grew up with.

“She was always very pleasant,” Cook said.

Cook and her son put up signs of support for Joey along State Road 28.

“Every time I look at the sign, I pray for her,” Cook said. “I pray for a miracle or what’s God’s will.”

She hopes that everyone who drives by will pray with her, and she hope’s they’ll be inspired by Joey’s life — a life lived to the fullest.

“People have told me they’ve driven by and they think about them,” Cook said.

“The way she is living her life right up until the very end is nothing short of an inspiration, not only to us in Alexandria, but all over the world,” Howell said.