NYC's famous Subway Baby is turning 25 — and thriving

New York Post

2 days ago

The subway baby is all grown up.
This summer marks 25 years since New Yorker Danny Stewart found a baby in a subway station and went on to adopt the infant with his partner, Peter Mercurio.
Their touching story is the subject of a new book, 'There: We Found Our Family in a New York City Subway Station' by Mercurio, and a short film, '18 Months,' which just won two awards at Cannes Lions. The film is the work of Second Nurture, an organization that works to support adoptive and foster families and for which Stewart serves as a board member.
'Everyone in New York can relate to something happening in a split second that could have sent their life in one direction or another,' Mercurio told The Post of their story's enduring appeal.
7 Danny Stewart (left) and Peter Mercurio adopted a baby Stewart found abandoned in a subway station.
Courtesy of Danny Stewart and Pete Mercurio
7 The family's story is the subject of a new animated short film, '18 Months,' from the organization Second Nurture, which works to support foster and adoptive families. The film was made by Klick Health, Zombie Studio, and Jamute.
Courtesy of Danny Stewart and Pete Mercurio
In August 2000, Stewart, then 34, missed the express train at 110th Street, near his apartment in Morningside Heights. By the time he reached the A/C/E station at 14th Street, he was running late to meet Mercurio, then 32, for dinner. As he pushed through the turnstile to exit, he saw what looked like a doll wrapped up in a black hoodie on the ground. Then, one of the doll's legs appeared to move and he realized it was actually a newborn baby.
He ran up the steps to call the police from a payphone — this was a time before cell phones were ubiquitous — then raced back down to comfort the tiny infant, who still had part of the umbilical cord attached. Authorities retrieved the baby, but Stewart couldn't forget him.
'I could not stop thinking about him,' he told The Post.
7 Mercurio has just published a book about their family's unique origin story.
Still, Stewart, a social worker, didn't initially think he'd adopt the baby. In early December 2000, he went to court to recount his story, so that authorities could prove the baby had been abandoned and speed up the process of finding him a permanent home.
During the proceedings, things took an unexpected turn and the judge asked if Stewart was interested in adopting the baby. He was shocked — the judge knew nothing about him — but answered 'Yes.'
Mercurio wasn't initially so sure, but Stewart was adamant that he would be proceeding with or without him.
7 Stewart couldn't stop thinking about the baby he'd found. When a judge asked if he was interested in adopting him, he jumped at the chance.
Courtesy of Danny Stewart and Pete Mercurio
'I knew that he was being motivated by fear,' said Stewart. '[Also,] I thought it was going to be a long process. So I was like, we're going to have time to figure this all out.'
'I said something really snarky, which was 'Good luck being a single parent in New York City.' And it didn't faze him at all,' Mercurio recalled.
The process actually ended up being surprisingly quick, thanks to a short-lived pilot program that was meant to cut through red tape and quickly place healthy, abandoned infants in permanent homes.
7 Stewart (left) and Mercurio named their baby Kevin, in honor of a son Mercurio's parents had lost.
Courtesy of Danny Stewart and Pete Mercurio
The pair did one overnight visit with the baby, and Mercurio felt an 'instant bond' when he held the child.
'Everything changed in that moment,' he said.
By Christmas, the baby was home with them. They named him Kevin, the moniker Mercurio's parents had planned to give a child they'd lost in 1967.
'The old tears of grief now mixed with new tears of joy,' Mercurio writes in the book of the moment he told his mom and dad about the name.
The proud dads called Kevin 'a really easy kid to raise.'
7 The proud dads say Kevin has been an easy kid to raise.
Peter Mercurio
In 2012, when Kevin was 11, Stewart and Mercurio got married. They asked the same judge who had initially asked Stewart if he wanted to adopt the baby to officiate.
They also asked the official — referred to in the book only as Judge Cooper — what she had seen in Stewart that day in 2000.
'All babies need a connection with someone and I was that someone,' he recalled her telling him.
The wedding ends the book, but Kevin's story has continued — happily.
He attended the NYC Lab School for Collaborative Studies in Chelsea, near where the family lives, and went on to graduate from Swarthmore College, studying computer science and mathematics.
7 Kevin, who is now living in Pittsburgh and working in website development, recently surprised his dads by coming to NYC for a screening of '18 Months.'
Courtesy of Danny Stewart and Pete Mercurio
He's now based in Pittsburgh, working as a website developer and captaining his Ultimate Frisbee team.
Mercurio described him as a 'cool cucumber' but said Kevin made a point of telling him how much he liked the book and how proud of him he was.
'That's all I need,' Mercurio said. 'That's the only review that matters to me.,'