When is an email from an estranged boyfriend declaring his undying love not the email you have spent months praying for? When it comes with the realization that instead of signing his name, said estranged boyfriend should have signed 'Winnie the Pooh.'

My friend's daughter, Heather, met WtP when she was nineteen and now, seven years, a bachelor's degree, and impending law degree later, was looking at the only relationship she has ever been in under a very cold, hard light, as well as through more than a few tears.

WtP is about ten years older than Heather, has a job, no kids, and a close knit family. He already had a life when Heather met him. He played baseball with a city league, rode motorcycles, and had a large circle of friends. Heather is a cute blonde with a bubbly personality who fit right into WtP's life. His friends loved her, and his family considered her one of them. There were problems, though, problems she just knew would go away if she just loved him enough. By the time she had gotten her bachelor's, however, it was pretty clear to everyone who knew them knew that loving WtP enough wasn't the problem, WtP was the problem. He had a roving eye and no inclination towards marriage or children, things that weighed on Heather's heart.

When she left for law school, things were strained, but not broken. There was a fight a short time later, and then, silence. No phone call at Thanksgiving, none at Christmas, not even one at midnight on New Year's Eve. Nothing for the past ten months. Then last night, The Email.

It was everything she had been praying for - hoped that she was ok, wanted to talk to her, told her he told her still loved her and missed her. She read it to me over the phone last night in the same tone one might use while reading a handwritten missive from the Vatican. She was estatic and devastated at the same time. What should she do?

I listened as she talked a million miles a minute about wanting to call him and tell him how much she missed him too, and how she never stopped loving him either. Then when she took a breath, I asked her if she planned on moving back to Arizona when she graduated to be with him. Without hesitation, she answered - God, no.

So What's Love Got To Do With Winnie The Pooh?

If you know the story of Pooh, you know that when Christopher Robin grew up, he left Pooh behind in the Hundred Acre Wood. Christopher had to move forward with his life, and stop doing Nothing. Pooh, on the other hand, would stay in the Wood and live his life as he always had. Pooh was smart enough to realize that Christopher wouldn't get back to the Wood often and let Christopher know that when he did, he would be there waiting for him.

When Heather said she wouldn't go back to WtP, I told her the story of Pooh and Christopher Robin, and told her that WtP wasn't a horrible person, she had just simply outgrown him. She and WtP were in such different periods of their lives and wanted such different things out of life that there was no way their relationship could last. I told her that more than anything, she was mourning not the loss of WtP, but the loss of the Hundred Acre Wood. She grew up there, learned how to be a woman there, learned the hard lessons of love there. The sun would always shine through the trees of the Wood in sepia tones in her mind, and the days would always be warm and lazy and spent in the arms of the man she loved first.

But, I told her, just as Christopher did, she would have to leave the Wood and grow up, even though she would never really close the door on WtP. We all have that one person we hear from, or of, once in a blue moon. When we do, though, it's best to feel the sun's warmth, walk through the Wood in our minds, and then, keep moving forward.

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Patricia Martinez is the co-host of the Mike in the Morning Show on 93.1 KISS FM. If you are looking for some love advice from Patricia, or want to raise an issue, please send an email to info@epmediagroup.com with "Love" in the subject line. Click here for the WLGTDw/it archives.