It is so difficult to accept that such a thriving community is no more than a distant memory and the numbers of those who remember it are dwindling. Those who lived at 3 Clyde Place and who made my boyhood so happy, are all gone now. It is this loss of loved ones and the removal of the very homes in which they lived, which makes the memories so poignant. Happily, to some extent, these very memories and the bonds that bound the residents together during the lifetime of the village are still evidenced by the efforts to keep its memory alive.

The picture shows the monument sited in Strathclyde Park - a memorial to the village and those who toiled and rested, laughed and wept, and lived and died in it. The monument is a salutory reminder of the relentless passage of time and the inevitable and irreversible changes which it brings. It is a reminder of our human frailty and the fact that at best, our allotted time is brief. I am forever grateful that part of the legacy that my time in the village bequeathed me, is a firm trust in God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who said "Heaven and Earth will pass away, but My words shall never pass away." (Mark 13:31) His words are timeless and enduring and laying hold on them means we pass from being creatures of time to becoming children of eternity. I have been remembering a little part of this Earth which has passed away but some of the words which Jesus said would never pass away, are these :- "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?" (John 11:25-26). These are personal memories of a time and a place which are gone, - but not forgotten.

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