Kathy Bain

My first connection to the West End was actually before I was born. My dad and his four siblings grew up in the West End with my grandmother, who was a single mom. They used to tell me great stories about my dad—how he was kind of a ruffian, a bit of a punk, I guess. He’d get into fights and things like that in the neighborhood.

I was fortunate to have a lot of extended family support, which helped me go to college. I was the first in my family to do so, and I went on to medical school. I did my pediatric training at Children's Hospital. After that, my very first job was with the Baby’s Milk Fund Clinic on Findlay Street. I was optimistic and admittedly a little naive about how challenging that job would be. At the time, I had only a nurse—no nutritionists, no counselors, no social workers. The kinds of issues families were bringing to me weren’t what I had trained for. It was more like, ‘I’m worried my daughter’s having sex, but I don’t know how to talk to her about it.’

It ended up being a great experience. Many of the families I saw had lived in the West End for years, and even those who had moved away still came back because they loved that clinic. It was truly an education for me. At one point, I found some old manuscripts and photos in the attic of the clinic, and that’s where I came across this picture.