Sunsets are very special for four-year-old Portia and her brother Boston (3). The pinks and purples and yellows are being painted across the sky especially for them by their very own guardian angel. The story is a way for their mother Georgie Milne to make sure they know the sister she lost 16 years ago.
Luci Milne died in January 1999 when she was 14 years old. The musical teenager, who played Beethoven on the piano and Jimi Hendrix on the guitar, was home from her boarding school in the Waikato to stay at her family home in Omokoroa, near Tauranga. Her mother had promised Luci a trip to swim with the dolphins, but it was a dream she never got to fulfil.
The night before, she snuck out of the house and met up with some local friends. A 17-year-old driver told her and her friend to jump on the back of her car and, as they pressed their backs against the glass of the hatchback with their feet on the car’s spoiler, the driver took off down a winding hill road, at around 40km/h. Luci screamed for the driver to stop, but she didn’t and Luci was sent flying into the air, hitting her head on a concrete kerb on the way down. While Luci’s friend escaped injury-free, Luci was rushed to hospital and the next night, surrounded by her family, her life support was turned off.
Left: The Milne family lost teenager Luci in 1999. Right: Georgie’s daughter Portia visiting her aunty.
For Georgie, who was only 17 years old at the time, the pain of losing her only sister sent her off the rails. There was a stream of bad boyfriends, bad experiences and bad choices. Finally, it was her partner Randal Liupuhi and her children that were her saving grace.
“When Luci died, I didn’t want to be here any more either, but I felt huge pressure to be alive for my parents,” tells Georgie. “I still feel like I’m walking around with half my heart. I have all these gorgeous friends who have sisters and I can’t describe the envy, because they’re all having babies together. I’m so happy for every one of them, but at the same time, it’s like being stabbed by a knife to the heart.”
With just three years between them, Georgie says the sisters had their ups and downs, but they were getting to that stage where they were starting to become friends. “One time Luci said to me, ‘Georgie, I just want you to know if you could never have babies, I would be happy to have babies for you. But I wouldn’t sleep with your husband, I promise.’ Then she paused and said, ‘Would you do that for me?’ and I said, ‘No!’”
More than a decade later, Georgie likes to think Luci would be married now with children of her own. But what she would look like was always a mystery.
That was until recently – when Weta Workshop weaved their magic, as part of a new campaign by road safety charity Brake. A forensic artist used pictures of Luci, as well as some of Georgie and their parents when they were aged in their 30s, to create a digital picture of what Luci might look like now. The image was unveiled along with other road accident victims at a launch in Wellington.
“What they did for us was incredible,” Georgie tells. “Dad was very emotional. He was crying and saying, ‘Oh, she’s beautiful.’”
Georgie says her mum’s grief is still raw and she didn’t attend the unveiling. It’s something she understands as a mother herself. It’s never far from Georgie’s mind that one day her children will be teenagers. The countless stories of young people who die due to reckless behaviour in fast cars still infuriate her.
The Weta Workshop digital image of what Luci would look like now.
“I’ve been a 14-year-old myself and at that age, you just don’t think about the risks, and unfortunately, people like Luci learn the bloody hard way. Recently, a teenage relative put a photo of himself on Facebook hanging out a car window when it was moving on a gravel road and I just lost the plot. It makes me so angry,” she says.
But for now, Portia, who is the image of her aunty with flowing white-blonde hair, and Boston are safe with their guardian angel looking over them, her picture on the wall and her artwork in the heavens. “When Portia sees a beautiful sunset, she’ll say, ‘Mummy, look, Aunty Luci’s painted the sky a lovely colour tonight – it’s so beautiful isn’t it, Mummy?’ So that’s our bittersweet way of keeping Luci in our lives. It’s important for them to know their beautiful aunty existed.”
Living Memories is part of a campaign by national road safety charity Brake, which will run as part of Global Road Safety Awareness Week from May 4 until May 10. This year’s theme is “Look Out for Kids” – a call for all drivers to commit to doing all they can to keep themselves and others safe on the roads, and prevent other families suffering the devastating loss of a child.
The five portraits created by Weta and the stories behind them will be housed in an online gallery at livingmemories.org.nz.
