As Joey + Rory's Joey Martin Feek comes to the end of her life, the people in her hometown of Alexandria, Ind., are showing their support for the beloved singer in a variety of ways.

Joey underwent surgery to treat cervical cancer in June of 2014, but it returned in a more aggressive form a year later, and the couple received the devastating news that the cancer was Stage 4. After further treatment, doctors told Joey there was nothing more they could do, and she decided to cease treatments and return to her hometown to spend her final days surrounded by her loved ones.

Her husband Rory has been sharing their courageous battle with fans via social media and his This Life I Live blog, and in a new post Monday (Feb. 29), he revealed that she had decided to stop fighting, gathered her family together and bid them goodbye before entering into a sleep from which she is not expected to wake. He said his wife had days to live, if that, and in the wake of that news, people from Alexandria are praising the singer for the inspirational way she has lived her life, and the unwavering dignity and grace with which she has faced her death.

Alexandria-Monroe High School coach Jon Howell coaches the basketball team on which Joey once played, and he remembers her as a standout student and person.

“She didn’t just sing, she was pure country even as a young child,” he tells Alexandria news station WISH. “She was a tremendous talent from the start.”

Howell has taped a picture of Joey to his office door, accompanied by 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,” he says.

Local resident Nancy Cook's kids grew up with Joey, and she and her son have put up signs of support for the singer along State Road 28.

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

“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 observes.

Rory Feek often writes of his own pride in the way his wife has lived her faith, sharing, “One of the last things Joey said before she drifted into the deep sleep she’s been in for a few days now is, ‘I have no regrets … I can honestly say, that I have done everything I wanted to do and lived the life I always wanted to live.'"

Update: Joey Feek died at the age of 40 on March 4. Rory reported the news at his This Life I Live blog.

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