Though their three-day marriage ended in tragedy, God brought new life

It was the start of her junior year at Franciscan University and Mariana Kuhlman was lonely. Most of her friends were studying abroad, and she remained in Ohio, asking God to send new friends into her life. She could not have imagined the life-altering way that God would answer that prayer.

God responds

As fall break approached, Mariana continued praying about the hope of new friendships. Then, her friend Ashley Morrissey suggested that Mariana travel with her and some other students to Florida for the upcoming break. The girls would stay at Ashley’s home and the boys at the home of Nathaniel (Nate). It was “weird,” Mariana thought, that after two years at Franciscan and with many mutual friends between them, she hadn’t yet met Nate.

But just then, Nate happened by.

“We got introduced and he said, ‘Yeah, you should totally come to Florida.’ And then he went on his merry way,” recalled Mariana. From that moment on, Nate and Mariana began the friendship she had prayed for.

“We got pretty close,” she explained. “We played on the same volleyball team for one game while I was subbing for Ashley. We stayed after and talked for hours doing the whole ‘Where you’re from, what’s your major’ conversation.”

Soon, Mariana and Nate began attending daily Mass together. Afterward, Nate would make dinner and they would do homework and watch “Avatar: The Last Airbender.” They took some time to focus on their relationships with God, but soon, Nate officially asked her on their first and then second dates. On their third date, they brought canvases to a park to paint and they talked for hours.

“I said, ‘Maybe we should start painting,’ and he said he had already painted something for me. Out came this canvas that he painted,” said Mariana. “It included a character from Avatar and it said, ‘Will you be my girlfriend?’ I said, ‘Yes,’ obviously!”

Mariana and Nate dated throughout the rest of the school year. After he graduated that spring, she went with him to Florida for the summer. But Mariana had one more year to complete at Franciscan, and at the end of summer, their relationship became long-distance. But when a hurricane blew into Florida, Nate escaped to Ohio to visit.

Planning a future

Christmas break approached for Mariana, and she planned to travel to California to see her family. Mariana’s mother, Ginna Garcia, suggested that she invite Nate to go with them on their annual trip to Las Vegas.

Though Vegas was not really “his thing,” Mariana invited Nate, who got excited about the trip after Mariana suggested they go hiking at Zion National Park. She didn’t know that Nate had been trying to find just the right place to propose, and Zion fit the bill perfectly.

After spending a day in Las Vegas, Nate, Mariana, her brother, Juan Diego Garcia, her friend Hailey, and her brother’s friend left before sunrise for Zion.

“It came upon my heart, ‘What if he proposes?’ I didn’t think he had the ring yet because he told me a timeline of when he was going to propose and he made it seem like it would be a lot later. But there’s no better place than Zion. I was praying and talking to the Lord about it, and I look over and Nate is passed out, and when he sleeps, he truly sleeps — mouth open, deep sleep. And I was like, ‘This man isn’t proposing.’ And I got angry and sad. And I’m driving in the dead of night and it’s not even to get proposed to,” she laughed.

As she drove, she calmed herself and submitted herself to the Lord’s will.

They arrived safely to Zion, but the weather was much colder than they had anticipated. When they reached the top of their hike, Mariana noticed that her brother’s hands were turning purple. She had seen Nate stick socks in his coat pocket and she asked him to give her brother his gloves and suggested he wear the socks on his hands.

“He didn’t move. He didn’t do anything,” she said. “I was like, ‘Aren’t your pockets insulated with coat material?’ And he just didn’t respond. He was clearly taking too long to think for me.”

So Mariana stuck her hand in his coat pocket — and hit something.

“And I was like, ‘Oh!'” she recalled. “[H]e yanked my arm and was like, ‘What are you doing?!’ And I knew my suspicions were correct.”

Nate took Mariana to a “cool spot” he and her brother had found to take photos. That’s when he got down on one knee.

“It was perfect and amazing and the sun was starting to hit the canyon and the sky lit up bright orange,” she said. “… It was a blissful ride home.”

Until death

Now engaged, Nate relocated to Ohio, and when Mariana graduated in May, they drove to Florida together where they planned to settle down. Their wedding took place in October 2023.

“The wedding was perfect as can be,” she said. “It was so fun. It was truly so anointed and holy… It was just super joyful the whole day.”

During the wedding, they stopped the music momentarily to pray over each other — shocking a lot of Mariana’s family members. They would later tell her they had never seen such a wedding so centered around the Lord and prayer.

The next morning, Nate realized he had left his passport at his parents’ house. His parents met them for Mass and lunch, happy to see the couple one more time before they left for their honeymoon — not knowing how very dear this morning would become to them. The newlyweds then headed to Miami for their flight but made a last-minute decision to say goodbye to Mariana’s mother and brother.

“It was not what we planned,” said Mariana. “We hadn’t wanted to see anybody after the wedding, but God was like, ‘No, you need to say your goodbyes.’ Now we know the reason.”

The next morning, the newlyweds left for St. Lucia.

A favorite pastime

The couple was excited to spend time waterskiing on their honeymoon. When they awoke the morning after arriving, that’s where they headed right after breakfast. Nate had grown up waterskiing and was even on a team.

“He was really good at it,” said Mariana. “And I loved it too. We both really loved being on the water and wanted to do it every day we were there.”

As she watched Nate waterski, Mariana struck up a conversation with another guest. After some time had passed, Mariana wondered if Nate was getting tired. She looked up to see the boat racing to the shore and noticed that CPR was being performed onboard. “That sent me into shock,” she said.

When the boat reached land, for unknown reasons, the resort ordered CPR to be stopped. Desperate to save her husband, Mariana called out for someone to continue CPR. No one came so she turned to God. That’s when Jevin, a firefighter who happened to be staying at the resort, emerged from the crowd and began administering CPR.

Nate was rushed to the hospital where doctors worked to save him. “After they told me he wasn’t coming back, I was given a moment with him to say my goodbyes,” said Mariana.

Mariana’s mother, her maid of honor Ariana, her aunt, Nate’s parents, Gordon and Heather, and Heather’s father, Jeff Rogers, immediately traveled to St. Lucia. “A whole army of people came. I was alone for over 24 hours with everything but once my family came it was just… much better. It also made everything real.”

The family prayed over Nate, and Heather asked friends to pray for Nate’s life to be restored. When it wasn’t, they were heartbroken. Mariana had lost her new husband and best friend. Heather and Gordon had lost their only child.

An unexpected answer

Mariana had prayed for Nate to survive and to come back to her. That prayer was seemingly unanswered. Then someone suggested, “What if you’re pregnant and that’s the way the Lord answers our prayers.”

It was a thought that had crossed Mariana’s mind, but she also didn’t think it was possible. She had been tracking her cycle and all signs pointed to a low likelihood that she and Nate had conceived a child during their three-day marriage.

Weeks went by, and Mariana and her family grieved the loss of Nate. Soon it was Thanksgiving day, and while her mother, Heather, and Gordon were at Mass, Mariana decided to take a pregnancy test she had been hanging onto.

To her joy and surprise, it was positive.

“I was so shocked,” she said, “and so happy.” It was their first holiday without Nate, and to be able to have such a gift to share was immensely joyful and special. She immediately woke Ariana and then her brother, telling him he was going to be an uncle. Then they rushed out to find a cute way to announce the unexpected blessing to the new grandparents. The only store open was the Dollar Tree, where she bought a pair of baby socks for each of them. When they sat down for breakfast, she told them she had a gift for them.

When Mariana’s mother opened it, she gasped. Heather, meanwhile, explained through tears, “When I opened it and I looked at the socks, I thought, ‘Dare I hope.’ That was my hope. Even now, ‘Dare I hope for this miracle?'” When Nate died, Heather and Gordon thought their hope of being grandparents had died with him. God, as He so often does, had another plan.

Gordon added, “I had been excited about being a grandparent when they were getting married… And to have that restored when we thought it was lost — just that overwhelming joy.”

A new future

People often ask Mariana how she has such hope amid tragic loss. She doesn’t often know how to respond because she is still processing everything that has happened. But she believes that hope begins with trusting in the Lord and His goodness. “He is love and He is mercy and as long as you have that strong foundation, everything else will come. Your faith will be strengthened,” she said.

Shortly before Christmas, Mariana and her family received another gift. An ultrasound through Life Choices Medical Center revealed Nate and Mariana’s baby’s heartbeat. “It was so beautiful to hear the heartbeat and see the baby and even with just seeing the baby right in front of me, this is just unbelievable and it still is, but it’s such an amazing gift from God.”

Nate’s and Mariana’s baby is due July 17 and she has moved in with Heather and Gordon, planning to raise her baby where Nate was raised. “I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else, being close to his family that is now my family,” she said.

Mariana wants everyone to see God in the “little miracles” just as they do in the “big miracles.” She explained, “In the breeze or the birds flying in the air. Just try to see God in every single moment, in every single day. Every day, look for where God is because He is here in the present moment, in the joy and suffering and the sorrow, and then in the hope, and in the rejoicing.”

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