The Little Goldfish was a Real-Life Miracle

Sr. MaryJo O’Connor, DW lives at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Convent in Sound Beach, NY. In this story, originally recorded in 2017, she shares a memory that she considered her witness to a miracle. It is full of hope, dedication, and promise; and encourages us to never give up.

"I'm the youngest one here...I'm 80 years old... I was born at 2 pounds 10 ounces. My mother always said I was 3 1/2 pounds at birth, but when she passed, I found my birth records and it turned out I was only 2 pounds 10 ounces. ...I was in one of the first incubators out there for about 2 months until I came home." I may have been small, but I saw a baby that was even smaller…

For most of her ministry, Sr. MaryJo was a nurse, and then in later years, she became a hospital chaplain. Her memory was of a call that took place in 1999 while serving as a hospital chaplain in New Jersey. It is the story of her witness to a perfect miracle. It is something she said just cannot be explained otherwise.

She was called to the ER for the case of a premature delivery. After staying with the mother through the delivery of what seemed like a tennis ball, she later went to the unit where the ball was examined and found to contain a perfect baby no larger than a goldfish.

Sr. MaryJo made a representation of the surviving baby using her thumb and index finger to illustrate the size. “That's how small she was.” She could not even guess at the weight.

To her amazement she watched the doctor insert a tiny tube, the size used for a diabetic IV line, into her mouth, and began to very slowly and gently puff to get this baby to breathe while it lay in the warm isolette.

Sr. MaryJo watched incredulously as she witnessed this amazing act. The doctor would not give up on this child.

"It's all in God's hands; I can't explain how else this baby survived. Sometimes mothers lose babies during pregnancy, sometimes they lose them full term at birth, and sometimes when it seems all the odds are against them, the babies survive. The birth and survival of this child is something I will never forget. She was born at only 26 weeks and then was in the NICU for months afterward.”

“But just before I was getting ready to relocate and move on in my ministry, I was invited to a NICU baby reunion party and saw this beautiful curly blond-haired, blue-eyed toddler running around at the party having a great time. It turned out that she was the one who started out the size of a goldfish, with all the odds against her, two years old and full of life. That's a miracle,” said Sr. MaryJo.