You have to learn that characters are always there with us. When we become authors they become part of our lives. But we can't mix both our personal lives with theirs, you can't let Willy interfere with your real life, only allow him to be there as support or inspiration. They don't belong to us anyway, only the ones we create ourselves do. Characters we love come to us and let us enjoy their presence for a while. They never really leave either, they just fade into another plane. They stop being such a priority. But all you have to do is call them and there they'll be right there and you'll realize he never left, you've just stopped thinking so much about him.
You know, I cried when Archie went and -killed- Robotnik to replace him with Eggman. It hurt me a little too much and it's worse when you love a dying character (Dying as in not having enough fans to keep him around for long) but I had to accept that's how reality is, but as long as I keep drawing and thinking about him he won't ever really die. :3