Catholic widow, 23, welcomes ‘miracle’ baby nine months after her husband’s tragic honeymoon death

A young widow is raising a ‘miracle’ baby — who was born nine months after her husband was killed in a freak accident on their Caribbean honeymoon.

Mari Kuhlman, 23, announced she gave birth to her son, Raphael Patrick Kuhlman, and posted pictures of the newborn on her Instagram, just nine months after her husband, Nate Kuhlman, 23, fell and drowned while water skiing on their honeymoon in St. Lucia.

“Clearly, God had a plan bigger than anything we could have ever imagined,” Kuhlman wrote in an July Instagram post. 

“He answered our prayers, and prayers of those around the world, just in a different way than we had expected, but still the GIFT OF LIFE; the miracle we are so overjoyed to finally share with you all.” 

The Ohio couple wed just three days prior to the tragic accident, and had agreed not to consummate their relationship until after they were married, the Tampa Bay Times reported. 

“Nate, our son is here!” Kuhlman wrote in the July 18 post. 

“I know you’ll be praying for him, for us each and every day, and he will know without a doubt how much his father loves him!”

Kuhlman learned she was pregnant on Thanksgiving day — just weeks after her husband’s Oct. 31, 2023 death.

“This has to be a miracle,” she recounted telling her in-laws, according to the Times. 

“God himself would have to kick an egg out.”

The couple met as students at Franciscan University in Steubenville in October 2021 and prayed nightly.

They eventually got engaged more than a year later and married on Oct. 28, 2023 — a date chosen specifically to avoid Kuhlman conceiving on their wedding night, the Times reported.

The newlyweds spent their first night married in their apartment, then drove to Miami the next night. The following morning, they arrived to the Caribbean to start their honeymoon, but then tragedy struck.

The couple kicked off their honeymoon at the beach where Nate went water skiing while Kuhlman watched on the beach. Minutes later, Kuhlman witnessed her husband receiving CPR on a boat that was racing back to shore.

Attempts were made to revive the young husband but doctors informed his new wife that he wouldn’t make it, the Times reported.

Kuhlman first announced her pregnancy on social media on her late husband’s birthday in January.