Krystal Keith is paying tribute to her late father Toby Keith. Krystal, 38, posted a carousel of photos of Toby to Instagram on Friday and said in the caption that she was devastated by her father’s death.
“I am shattered. As great as he was in his career, he was so much greater as a dad and a husband and a Pop Pop. He was my hero,” she wrote of Toby in the caption.
She went on to list why she’s grateful for the time she had with her dad, who died from stomach cancer on Monday at the age of 62 after being diagnosed two and a half years ago.
Krystal followed in her father’s footsteps and pursued a career in country music before marrying and welcoming two daughters of her own.
“I am so lucky to have had him and so grateful he got to walk me down the aisle and meet my babies. That I have years of memories traveling the world as a family,” she wrote. “I am blessed that I got to spend years traveling on the road and singing on stage with him. That I have mountains of video footage and endless tracks of music to watch him on and hear his voice with.”
Krystal added, “I’m lucky I got to say goodbye and tell him what he meant to me.” The “Daddy Dance with Me” singer went on to say that she was grateful that there were so many other tributes to him that she hoped to be able to appreciate one day.
“There has been an [immense] outpouring of love and segments remembering him that someday I hope to be able to watch and enjoy once I’m able. This amount of people and networks honoring him is a reminder that he wasn’t just ours. He was the world’s.
He is the gift that we were, as a family, able to offer the world and he did not squander our sacrifice of time with him. He lived a hundred lives of accomplishments and impact in peoples lives.”
Krystal continued, “There is so much he did for people that no one knew about, even us. He didn’t want recognition for doing good deeds, he just did them because his heart led him to or someone needed him to.”
Toward the end of her post, Krystal said that she’d always try to honor Toby.
“The pain is so unbelievably deep and it feels like I have a literal broken heart but I know that it wouldn’t hurt so bad if we didn’t love him and get to be loved so deeply by him. He never made me wonder if he would be there for me,” she wrote.