“Amado Mío" - by Waltz Tango. One of Donna's favorite dinner time dance songs.

This is a painting I created in 1978 - based on Uriah Heep's "Lady in Black" - The Witch and the Soldier.
Donna was 16 then. Forty years before I "found" her. As she loved to rag me, jokingly
The first night we met, she caught my arm and her first words were: "Ah! You found me"
And my first SURPRISED words were: "Migod! It's YOU!
That's me . . . the Soldier. BUT the likeness of the Priestess is EXACTLY Donna.
That nose. The corners of the mouth. The body language. Just as I had imagned her. All those years ago.

Donna wrote me: "What we find in a soulmate is not something wild to tame, but something wild to run with" - Robert Brault.

The True Love Story of The Witch and The Soldier. The Day Before You Came

from: Donna darkwolf@netactive.co.za
to: moreno franco morenofranco.design@gmail.com
date: Apr 13, 2016, 8:40 AM
subject: the day before you came

This is a story of The Witch and The Soldier.
A True Love Story. By Donna Darkwolf Vos.
Arch-Priestess of the Circle of the African Moon


My life has two parts

Before you found me

And, after you found me

The day before you came, life was a tumult of events, crazy happenings, hecticness, travelling to egypt, america, india, france and egypt six times more
unplanned adventures into drunkeness, outright stupidity even.

After you found me, it was as if I had escaped a stormy ocean, and sailed into the calm bay of an island in a million miles of sea.

There is still crazy, but it is just we two who are crazy together.
There are still un-planned adventures, yet I know I am safe, bec you are a real Boy Scout and a Soldier.
There is no drunkeness, or stupidity, bec you are like a rock.
And I know you wont take chances with my life, bec you wont take chances with your own.

The only person (other than my parents), who has never been unfaithful to me

You are my faithful dog - playful, friendly. And Faithful.
You are that cold, hard, black combat knife of yours. Close to my heart, to keep me safe.
You are my doctor. Always ready to take care of any instance to do with my health and physical welfare.
You are my home entertainment. With your off-beat humourisms, snide monty python insults, unexpected turns-of-phrase,
colorful foreign-sounding epithets delivered in Hindi, Russian, German, Greek, French, Swahili,
Australian, Italian, Chinese... keeping me in stitches. Did I leave anything out?
You are my work-man. You just roll up your sleeves, and get any maintenance job done. Around the house and in the garden.
And I have the benefit of "banging the hired help" when he is finished. LOL
You are my 5-Star chef. I just love sitting at the kitchen counter, watching you perform all your amazing culinary magic. And there is NO MESS.
You are my dance instructor. Teaching me properly how to waltz and tango and Paso Doble! in our lounge - WHILE you are making lunch or dinner.
You are my kitchen cleaning staff. You refused to use the dish washer because you said: the chemicals in the detergent pollute the sea,
'where you will one day be, ma jolie petite sirène (my pretty little mermaid)' LOL
You are my launderer. bec u said: 'because I am better at it, than you!' LOL
You are my watch-man. Checking our security every night. And sleeping with your gun on the floor next to the bed.
You are my computer tech. Always sorting out my technical issues.
You are my MINION!!!!
You are my beautiful soldier who loves me. More than I have ever been loved.
Who taught me how to love wisely, AND well.

Could any woman want to be loved by a better man?

I recall with amazement, when you moved into my house.


You were no sooner un-packed, than we took a drive to GAME to buy 2 TOOL BOXES????? AND A SHELVING RACK!!!

'Nothing less than un-romantic', I recall thinking at the time
Yet - on reflection - male birds build the nests that they use to woo a mate
And you were that wooing male bird, my franco. Impressing me. or upon me...

Over 2 days you straightened out our garage - salvaged what tools of my fathers we would keep - and what would be sold.

Packed the racks with all the odds and sods you felt had a use in our lives - and loaded the 2 trolley bins with everything else.

Then you packed WOLF with everything we didnt need and took it off to Cash Convertors and sold all of it.
And used the money to buy white paint and roller-brushes

I marvelled at you, hosing out the garage - and then painting it. All in the space of 2 hours.

And there was still money left from the sale of junk - to go out to my favorite CATTLE BARON restaurant for a steak.

All that unneccessary crap converted into a painted-out double garage AND a FREE MEAL! By my thrifty boy scout

And I had to marvel. When you once said you were a 'take-charge-kind-of-a-guy'
I assumed it to be an idle jest.

You looked like a military operation

I have only seen that in movies
Watching you was like watching some sort of machine, that absolutely will not stop, until the program cycle is completed

But I also have to tell you, as I have told you before, that all your energy overwhelms my Inner Peace.

I am thankful for the Energy, though.

You project managed the building of the cottage.

Made sure it was painted the exact purple I wanted

You created the huge pentagram in the Alter Room, designed and had fabricated the Snakes Around the Sword,
painted our dining room that deep orange with all the gold splashes across the walls, and re-did the pentagram on the lounge floor.

So much energy.
So spiritually unsettling for me
Then I realised the error in my thinking

I conduct all my energy in the Spiritual world - bec I am a Witch.
You conduct all your energy in the Real world - bec you are Soldier.
You may have left the Army, but the Army certainly NEVER left you.

I marvel to myself: What chances we take as a Witch and a Soldier???

You live between two worlds The world of the Poet and the world of the Warrior.
I am a Warrior Priestess and a Mermaid, Living between two worlds.
Both, in the sea and in the sky

So maybe the Soldier found his Warrior Priestess

And the Mermaid found her Poet

You are the only man in my life who has ever said what he will do
And then does what he said he would.
I close my eyes, and I still can see you
A land so far away. A Heart full of Memories. Is this how it's meant to be? I want to have you near, and hold me.
No matter the Trials
No matter the Storm
As long as we’re Kissing

you remind of the words from Abba: "It's funny, but I had no sense of living without aim. The day before you came"

A Witch and A Soldier!!!

And the only man who has never been unfaithful to me.
I have never seen you glance at another woman

I watch you move through this world like the Stainless Steel Rat your squad named you - Untouched. Checking all the corners.
Seeking the dangerous spots.
With your eyes of a priest. And the hands of a killer.
The Alert Pilot, that you want me to become for my Mission.
Tonight I wish my beautiful soldier boy to do a kitchen performance and make me a Milanese Chicken Pasta,
and take me waltzing across our lounge to my favorite Ama-a-a-a-a-do Mío!

The graphic I did for Donna - for her book:
"The Witch and The Soldier".
She was just blown away... You will discover more later in this Book . . .

You are also the only man who has never lived with Some FEAR of Me.
With you? my rages are like waves beating against the rocks on the shore.
My bi-polar condition causes me to ebb and flow
And you are just A Rock. Always there for me.
They fled from me. You pull me into your embrace.
Holding "your enemy closer".
Sun Tzu - "The Art of War" - that I love you to read to me

Fuk my franco... can you imagine a bed time story for Witches... read by a Soldier.

The Art of Battle! 'Victor' and 'Concede'

I recover, as if from delerium. As a Mermaid, clinging to the Rock... as the tide swells and rolls...

There is no recrimination. No Accusation. Just your gravelled, sexy voice:
Surging around me - like the tide and the Foam on the Sea

"Strega Mia? Have I told you today that I Love you?"

Of course I have to reply, AS ALWAYS: "No. You have Not!"

JUST so I can hear hear you mutter: "Do not worry. I will".

"You Had Better!" is always my response. So funny! I always have to have a chuckle

Tomorrow, is a public holiday so you must bring The WOLF to my door, and take us to lunch,
in Constania, at Jonkershoek wine farm,
where i love to watch My Ducks swimming in that huge pool.

And you can love me with your eyes... I KNOW you do that.
I always SEE YOU doing that.
While I am hypnotised by your gravelly, sexy voice.
I only discovered what love looks like, when I first looked at you, doing what you do
Writing what you write. Creating what you create. All for us.

And I wonder why I had to wait so long in my life for love to discover a lonely mermaid.
Stranded on a beach, and for love to come lift her back to the sea, so that she may be free.

I feel as if my whole life is a hazy memory up until the day you came. And I knew then that love is back in my life.

"What we find in a soul mate is not something wild to tame, but something wild, To Run WITH!" - Robert Brault.

This describes us perfectly... my beautiful Soldier.

"I am so grateful that you exist"

Your eternally grateful shiny wife - Donna Ragazza Mia. MWAH! :D
Pls bring me a Lunch Bar... Minion of Mine

Roma Victor!

NEXT >> What if You Never Existed

Amado Mío

Lyrics by: Pink Martini

Amado mio, love me forever
And let forever, begin tonight
Amado mio, when we're together
I'm in a dream world, of sweet delight

Many times I've whispered
Amado mio?,
It was just a phrase
That I heard in plays
I was acting a part.

But now when I whisper
Amado mio?,
Can't you tell I care
By the feeling there
Cause it comes from my heart

I want you ever
I love my darling
Wanting to hold you
And hold you tight

Amado mio, Love me forever
And let forever begin tonight

Déjanos Tango!