Found it.The Kieth Hancock album is called This World We Live In. Produced by Greenwich Village in Sowerby Bridge West Yorks.
The full version is as follows
ABSENT FRIENDS
ch
Time Heals Wounds they say,Time takes the pain away
Iwonder why it never happens for me
Its years since youy went away
But i miss you night and day
Why you had to go is a mystry to me

What seemed important then becomes trivial when
Fate deals the card that forces your hand
All the places we'd been
All the things we had seen
No more in the future it just isn't planned
ch
Its all very strange but when you went I changed
It just seemed to happen with the passing of each day
I don't understand
Is it part of a plan
Does on person grow when another fades away
ch
Small things you'd do weavepictures of you
They're printed for life on the back of my mind
I was always so sure
Your life was so pure
To the faults and to bad times a loved one stays blind
ch
I always found that when you were around
You helped we with worries and eased all my fears
You always had times for problems of mine
A shoulder to cry on a listening ear

CH