New Jersey

NJ Woman Delivers Surprise Baby Exactly a Year After Dad's Sudden Death: Report

The birth was all the more meaningful because it came on the year anniversary of her father's sudden death, according to News 12

What to Know

  • An NJ couple got the shock of their lives when they suddenly had a baby son; the woman never even knew she was pregnant
  • Patricia Crawford told News 12 she thought she had food poisoning; she had no significant pregnancy symptoms, she said
  • The birth was all the more meaningful because it came on the year anniversary of her father's sudden death, the website said

A New Jersey woman who thought she had a bad case of food poisoning got the shock of her life when she delivered a baby boy last month -- a surprise made even more meaningful by the date he was born. 

Patricia Crawford couldn't sleep the night of March 28. She thought she had food poisoning. She went to the bathroom. And, as she told News 12 New Jersey, she was stunned beyond belief. 

"By the time I got back to the toilet area all of a sudden a baby came sliding out,” Crawford told News 12. “It was just like…’Oh my God. What are we even going to do?’” 

Crawford and her husband Evan Darragh, of Monmouth County's Keyport, weren't expecting a baby. They had tried in the past and weren't able to conceive; she says she didn't really have symptoms of pregnancy, either. And the past year had been doubly trying because Crawford's father died suddenly -- on March 28, 2018, exactly a year before her baby was born, News 12 reports. 

Crawford and Darragh named their baby boy after her father: William James. He was born at 5 a.m. that March day, which was the same time Crawford told News 12 her father always set his alarm for work. 

"I think my sister said it best. She [said] it was like my dad came from heaven and said ‘You will no longer be sad on March 28 ever again,’" Crawford told News 12. "And it's really the best thing in the world."

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