The sad, inescapable truth: Jose Fernandez’s daughter never will meet her dad.
The Miami Marlins ace died early Sunday in a boating accident off the shores of Miami Beach. He was 24. And he was expecting a child with girlfriend Maria Arias, who reportedly is due in February.
Maria Arias, the pregnant girlfriend of the late Jose FernandezSplash NewsA video posted to Facebook on Aug. 11 shows the joyous moment Fernandez learned the unborn child’s gender. Sitting at the head of a restaurant table, he cuts into a cake to reveal the pink icing inside.
He claps and exclaims, “I knew it!” A smile comes over his face and tears well in his eyes.
It’s a cruel reminder of how thrilled Fernandez seemed about becoming a father.
Another arrived Wednesday when an utterly devastated Arias, a pregnancy bump visible through her black mourning garb, appeared at a procession carrying Fernandez’s hearse through Little Havana, near Marlins Park.
Fernandez’s family, along with Marlins players and personnel, are set to attend a private funeral Mass on Thursday at St. Brendan’s Catholic Church.
