After discovering a newborn baby in the New York subway, a man and his companion obtained the right to adopt him.
It was 21 years ago now that the life of Danny Stewart and Pete Mercurio turned upside down. On April 28, 2000, while Danny was taking the New York subway to join his companion for dinner, the man sees, placed against the wall of the station, what strongly resembles a doll. But approaching, he notices that it is not a question of an inanimate object, but of a newborn, for the real blow, which has been abandoned.
Seeing that the baby still had his umbilical cord attached to him, Danny Stewart hastens to call for help from the nearest telephone booth. The second phone call goes to her boyfriend, Pete Mercurio, to warn him of his delay due to this puzzling discovery. The latter then joined him at the scene, just as the authorities were leaving to transport the infant in the hospital, who then had only one hour of life.
The beginning of a beautiful story
Three months later, and while the authorities launched a search to locate the child’s biological parents, Danny Stewart has been called in for a hearing with the Children’s Services Administration. After asking him to recount the circumstances of the event, the judge asked him a question which completely caught him off guard: “Would you be interested in adopting the child?”.
The man, very surprised, nodded, adding with reserve that he knew the adoption process was long and complex. What the judge cut short, answering that it could be very simple. The judge therefore made sure to simplify the administrative procedures so that the baby’s savior, and his companion, could become the happy parents. Danny says: “I never thought about adopting. But at the same time, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I felt connected. I felt it was a gift, and how can you say no to a gift?“. They officially became the adoptive parents of the newborn in December 2002, a very precious Christmas present.
To pay homage to this gift of life, but also put their incredible story into words and images, Pete Mercurio posted in September 2020 a children’s book called Our Subway Baby (Our baby metro), the designs of which were made by Leo Espinosa.
A great gift idea to slip under the tree, to make children and adults dream!