Thanks very much to my friend, Joey, for translating this part of José's interview for me.
She said she didn't write down what he said word-for-word, but rather it's a synopsis.
Here is the part if you'd like to watch it again.
Most of it was about their children and the heartaches they endured, so it’s pretty sad stuff. But I think it’s important for his fans to see, and if he was willing to talk about it, I certainly want people to see it and understand it.
The first part was about playing in Montreal versus other cities:
At the start, he talks about how it was completely different playing in Washington or Colorado rather than in Montréal. He said there’s definitely not as much pressure because you put your own pressure on, but then after the game, you go home or to the mall and you’re alone; nobody recognizes you. He also said that in Montreal, winning the Vezina and Hart put extra pressure on him from journalists, and also fans want a lot out of you. He liked that in Montreal you had to bounce back right away after a bad game, but also liked that while playing in other cities he had more time to focus on his mentality and whatnot and take it a bit slower.
Then this is the part about his family:
He was saying that when he got traded from Montreal, he stayed in Montreal for about a month, because he was injured and because Romi was born a few weeks later. Romi had complications at birth and was hospitalized for three months. He also got called the night she was born that Romi had a code blue (heart stopped) so he said that was super tough. When he went to Colorado, Romi was still in the hospital but he still had to perform since he was their number one. He said that he’d call after every game and stuff and hear how his little one was doing, and sometimes she’d have a good day and sometimes a bad day, and she also went through an operation. He said he was really in the unknown, because he didn’t know if she’d make it through the day or not. So he realized that hockey took less importance than family and that his head was more in Montreal than in Colorado.
He said that Stephanie lost a baby in 2008 at 28 weeks during the pregnancy, and they decided to try again. Chace was born the 22nd of June (2009) and they saw the week before he was born that there’d be problems. He was born 4 weeks prematurely, and he never left the hospital. He passed away the 14th of August and was on a respirator his whole life. He said they spent their entire days in the hospital, and that it was tough because they still had Romi who they had to take care of and spend time with. He said it was tough to think about hockey but that he sort of had to.
He also didn’t train all summer, because he was always at the hospital and that he put his skates on for the first time 5 days before training camp and was about 10 lbs overweight. He said that training camp was his escape; he’d go to the rink super early to get on the ice and train after practice just to get away from the troubles in his life. He said you never get over it, and you think about it everyday, but that he keeps all his problems inside, because he can deal with them himself (or with his family). He didn’t want to expose everything and wanted to deal with the loss within family. He said he’s never been the jealous type, and he doesn’t want people to feel pity for him. He said it was super tough but he didn’t want pity because it’s happened to others before him and he’s not different.
So much respect. For both of them.
They’re much stronger people than I could ever hope to be.
