It's been more than two and a half years since country star Joey Feek passed after a long battle with cancer, but her widow, Rory Feek, refuses to take off his wedding ring.
"I really feel just as married as before. It's really not even a choice. I tell you what would be a choice, is if you woke up one day and decided that you weren't going to wear it. That feels like a choice. And there's been no evidence of why in the world I would do that," he told E! News. "She was wearing her ring when she was buried. So I don't know what the future holds, but I always talk about my wife. I don't talk about my deceased wife or my wife from the past. I think about it like we're still married, so it's kind of a non-thing."
Joey and Rory, of course, were known primarily for their work as duo Joey + Rory. Much like with his wedding ring, nothing is changing musically for Rory in terms of grabbing the microphone opposite someone.
"I mean, I'm not a normal part of a duet where I sing with this person for a while and then there's someone else I want to sing with," he told us. "I'm part of a marriage that I still feel I'm still part of a duet. So no, I don't think that there's someone I wish I could perform with other than my wife."
When Joey passed, Rory was left to care for their daughter Indiana, who was born on Feb. 17, 2014.
"It's really just one major difficulty and that is to experience such a beautiful time in her life, and ours, without my wife," he told E!. "Not because it's hard on me, but because she's missing out on an incredible opportunity. And that the passing of someone is so final."
"You don't know what happens in the future, but you know that that doesn't get to happen again," he continued. "And so that's really the hard part. Is it potty training and bath time? No, those are all easy, easy things. It's really just the disappointment. That's really the main thing."