<p>Six Months After the Tragic Death of the Miami Marlins&rsquo; Jose Fernandez, His Girlfriend Maria Arias Talks About Raising Their Daughter&mdash;and About Life Without Him.</p>

- Becky Randel

When Maria Arias found out she was pregnant in June 2016, she admits, “I was scared.” She and Miami Marlins star pitcher José Fernández had only been together five months or so, and she was worried about how people might react. “José saw how nervous I was,” she says. “We had just started a relationship, and I thought people would judge me. But he made me feel so good about everything that I didn’t care what I had to face.”

Since then, sadly, Arias has faced more pain and anguish than she ever could have imagined. On Sept. 25, 2016, Fernández, 24, died in a tragic boating accident when his high-speed 32-ft. powerboat struck a rocky jetty off Miami Beach, instantly killing the Cuban-American ballplayer and the two passengers on board with him—his friend Eduardo Rivero and Emilio Jesus Macias, whom he’d recently met. Just a week before Fernández’s death, the couple had learned they were having a baby girl—and on Feb. 24 Arias, 25, gave birth to their daughter, Penelope Jo Fernández. “It was beautiful, it was emotional,” she says, through tears. “I have a lot to be thankful for—I have my family and I have Penelope. But he was a person who brought out so many emotions. Nothing is the same without him.”

Her grief has been made even more difficult by the circumstances surrounding his death. Last month, after a six-mo