The grandparents of a 3-year-old Florida boy abandoned at St. Patrick’s Cathedral last week moved a step closer to gaining full custody of the child.
Donald and Frieda Fons met with child welfare officials this morning during a Manhattan family court hearing over their grandson, Nathaniel, who showed up on the doorstep of New York City’s most famous church two days after he was reported missing in Florida.
“It’s a roller coaster of emotions,” Donald Fons said outside the courtroom. “Nathaniel is doing well. My first priority is Nathaniel.”
Authorities say Nathaniel was left at St. Patrick’s by a couple who had been traveling with the boy after his mother was arrested on counterfeiting charges.
Cops are still looking for the pair, who dropped him off with a note with directions to call police in Florida. The couple, Eleanor Black, 29, and William Scott, 32, could face charges of endangering the welfare of a child.
The boy’s father is in jail on a separate charge.
The grandparents plan to bring Nathaniel back to Florida, but were delayed by several discrepancies in their petition, officials said. They are scheduled to be back in court tomorrow. In the meantime, Nathaniel will remain in foster care, where he is in a home with three other children.
Nathaniel and his grandparents had a supervised reunion Friday, the first time they had seen each other in more than a year. The paternal grandparents had sought custody before but Nathaniel’s mother refused.
Donald Fons said Nathaniel was scared for the first 15 minutes of the meeting, “Then, after that, he kept reaching up to us and wanted us to hold him.”
Fons said they may stop by St. Patrick’s Cathedral to thank the ushers who took Nathaniel in.
“We want to meet the security guards that helped him that night and just say a prayer, light a candle for him,” Fons said. “I’m Irish Catholic, so what a fitting place to be.”
The Fonses will be back in Family Court tomorrow. Child welfare officlas are trying to determine if Florida child protection services have jurisdiction. The court also needs a birth certificate.
With Associated Press
