Miami Marlins pitcher, José Fernández died tragically in a boating accident last year, just a few months after announcing that he and his girlfriend, Maria Arias were expecting a child. Since his passing, Arias gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Penelope and for the first time she’s speaking out about what a whirlwind the last couple of months have been for her.
“He made me feel so good about the pregnancy, that I didn’t care what I had to face. I never thought it would be of this magnitude, but I felt strong, I felt confident,” she says to People magazine. This was before the accident, which not only left him dead but two of his friends.
Arias was left with the aftermath, which included funerals, memorials, and an official investigation, including a lawsuit from the families of the two other diseased men, who blamed Fernández. After a 6-month investigation, the Florida and Wildlife Conservation Commission concluded that Fernández had been driving the boat at the time of the crash and had traces of cocaine in his system and a blood-alcohol level of .147, nearly twice the legal limit.
“It felt very robotic,” she says of that time. “All I wanted to do was lock myself in our room and be alone,” says Arias. On February 24th, Penelope Jo Fernández was born and it became more evident that she was going to face raising her daughter on her own. “He loved her from the moment she was conceived,” Arias says of Fernández, who also picked her name, Penelope, after a Spanish song. “Everyone knew how excited he was to be a dad, he made sure of it.”
“He loved her from the moment she was conceived,” Arias says of Fernández, who also picked her name, Penelope, after a Spanish song. “Everyone knew how excited he was to be a dad, he made sure of it.”
She wanted to make sure that he included Fernández in the birthing process. “I kept a piece of his clothing since he passed that I sleep with every night, and I took it with me. I had it around my neck the whole time. So, when they put her on top of me it was kind of like both of us being present,” she says.
Their daughter has certainly been a blessing because she sees him in her. “You have days that you look at her and you feel happiness and gratitude. And then there are other days where you feel afraid and you feel lonely and you feel the weight of his absence again.” Arias says. “He makes such an impact in your life, that his absence just feels so heavy.”
“I will forever talk about him. I will never let his memory die. I will always keep him alive, no matter how much that hurts me. Because she deserves that from me; and from all of us. And so does he,” she says. “He was a beautiful person, we who truly knew him talk about him that way and value him that way, and we’ll continue to do that.”