Hey there, it's Hilary Frank. Here at The Longest Shortest Time, we cover all kinds of stories about

parenthood and reproductive health. And we talk about kids of all ages. But when I started the show

16 years ago, I had just had a baby. So we've got a lot of stories about babies, and they are

some of my favorites. In fact, I love them so much. I'm going to be

airing one of those baby episodes from the archive every other week, and in between those,

you'll get a brand new episode. Don't worry, you don't need to have a baby or any kids of your

own to enjoy these stories. Happy listening. Laura Kavanaugh has always thought of herself

as a shy person. She doesn't like being in the spotlight or public speaking. So she panicked a little

when her boss came to her and said, my number two is retiring, and I want you to replace him.

Her boss, Daniel Nigro, was commissioner of the New York Fire Department.

And I turned him down because I knew it was a public-facing job,

and I'm just so shy and so comfortably being in the background.

I just thought I can't do that, and it's not for me, and you should ask someone else.

Laura had been rising up at the department for the last four years. Her boss was offering her the

position of first deputy commissioner. He told her, look, you are the best person for this job.

And if you really can't do it, you should leave. But I think you can. You know, and he pushed me in a way that I think it, like, was necessary. So I go in, you know, I go into this position thinking, I'm really excited about the work, but I'm really, really, really nervous about it being public, that I'm going to give public speeches, that I'm going to, like, be this public person public person that I've never wanted to be and I've never been comfortable. And I really had to, like, confront that in myself. The public nature of the job began on day one. The swearing-in was very public. Like, there, my mom came. There was an actual, there's a Bible and a swearing-in, you know, there's a lot of ceremony in the fire department and there was a lot of press there and there was

another woman promoted the day I was. there's a Bible and a swearing in, you know, there's a lot of ceremony in the fire department.

And there was a lot of press there.

And there was another woman promoted the day I was.

There was a lot of attention to kind of women being put in this position, which was still very rare in the fire department. On that day, Laura became the first female, first deputy commissioner of the FDNY. And I think I was like really struggling with

can I let myself enjoy this moment? Can I like not let my nervousness about it being public get in the way?

And I maybe felt like I had achieved that a little bit. I was starting to feel proud of myself.

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