Last month Nigeria’s Patricia Odi (48) celebrated the most anticipated moment in her life as a woman: to be a mother, that is. It was such a long wait since her marriage to Cyprian Nnamdi Odi on February 10, 1979. Her pregnancy, however, was rather odd. She had to carry the baby in her womb for three years and eight month. How so?

“In April 2002, I missed my menstrual period. I went for a test and it was positive. Before then I had never missed my period and I had cried to God for the fruit of the womb for 23 years since I got married in 1979. I registered for antenatal at military Hospital, Yaba and looked forward to my delivery. Later—I don’t remember exactly when—I was told that my baby wasn’t growing well as it should. I was afraid but I continued in my prayers and started going to Ijaw women in Ajegunle for massages.

“I went for massages because there the Ijaw people gave me more hope and strengthened my belief that my baby would be born healthy. Meanwhile, I did not have the kind of pregnancy I expected. I never vomited; I never had any spitting of saliva. All I had were odd feelings, headaches, weaknesses and a bit of backache. My baby did not move in my womb until the pregnancy was about a year old and yet the doctor said there was no fibroid in my womb.”

By the time, she said, people started to stare at her whether she was in the bus or on her street, and even at church where she—being a devoted Catholic—never stopped praying. Some of them were worried that she might have fibroids. The others thought she simply tied a pillow around her stomach to conceal the truth that she could not have her husband’s baby. Her friends however continued to believe her when they saw and felt the baby as it moved in her womb.

Financial problem in the meantime had been a constant problem. Her husband was transferred to Enugu and their salaries were rarely being paid on time. Considering her condition at that time, doctors suggested her to have an operation—which she refused. Mother Mary did not deliver Jesus Christ with operation, she said. She did not want to. As a believer, she found her solace in different Catholic churches—by collecting holy water, blessed salt and anointing oil which she always used.

And apparently she did not have to wait forever. On the 21st of December, 2005, she was preparing the celebration mass for the new assistant parish priest at the church; when suddenly she felt something was wrong with her body. She ignored it. She was even able to finish the cleaning and then kneeling down at the Blessed Sacrament for a prayer before going home. When she arrived, she started to have pain on her lower back and under her womb where she could not sit nor stand. She decided to call her sister Mary to take her to the hospital.

They reached the hospital at 8 pm where she was told that she was in labor. They did not lie. The baby, Emmanuela Odi, was born at 10.30 pm without any complications and physically normal. There was a sigh of relief as the baby cried.

“Now, after over twenty-years of marriage, people in my area call me mama somebody. Ah, there is indeed a God who hears and answers if you call on him. My joy is boundless and my heart has been cleansed of all sorrows”, she said.

Such a miracle—as Patricia puts it—has no medical explanation on how the offspring could have survived after years inside the womb. The doctor, Babatunde Abiodun, supported her story. “Sometimes it happens. Anything is possible,” he said. While those who only hear the story might be a bit skeptical for Patricia had no regular doctor to monitor her; many saw her throughout her years of pregnancy.