Aberdeen theatre stalwart and seamstress extraordinaire Elizabeth Milne is a firm believer in finding life’s silver linings.
Raising her three children on a diet of “it could always be worse” and the classic keep calm and carry on approach, Elizabeth was always keen that they did not miss out on what life had to offer.
And it seems Liz – as she is fondly known to many – is not finished looking at the brighter side of things, even in the middle of cancer treatment going badly wrong.
The co-founder of Phoenix Theatre was diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer last autumn but has continued working away on costumes for every production.
However, during the final week of preparations for Phoenix Youth Theatre’s Beauty and the Beast, Liz had to be “wheeched off” to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary where staff found that part of her chemotherapy had flooded into her left arm tissue.
Following some urgent treatment, her arm was left overnight in a sling.
But apparently, when life gives Liz slings, she makes teapot costumes.
“The next morning I asked ‘Do you want this sling back?’,” Liz, 73, said.
“They said ‘No, no we just throw them out’. So they let me have it and I made it into Mrs Potts’s arm for Beauty and the Beast, it was perfect.
“So it just shows you every cloud has a silver lining.”
‘I miss sewing more than I miss walking’
Liz first felt something was wrong in September last year two weeks into rehearsals for Scrooge after she felt “knocked for six”.
After booking a doctor’s appointment, she was told the daunting news.
However, according to her son Jonnie, 36, she even had the consultant who first delivered the dreaded diagnosis in a fit of giggles.
Citing her reputation, the exact conversation that took place will have to remain a mystery.
But let us just say Liz asked very politely if she could say a few choice words after hearing her diagnosis last autumn.
Ever since and despite several tumultuous ups and downs, it seems she has been relentless in looking at the positives.
Even when the cancer and her body’s reaction to chemotherapy have left Liz having to use a wheelchair and losing a lot of movement in her left arm.
However, it is not the walking she mourns the most.
“The thing I love best is doing the costumes and that’s breaking my heart that I’m too weak to do very much,” Liz said.
Getting help from family and Phoenix production assistant David Edwards with costumes, she added: “I miss sewing more than I miss walking because I can get wheeled about in a wheelchair.
“But I can’t wheel about in a wheelchair with a sewing machine on my lap.”
Dyslexia became sewing superpower
While there was a time when her mother-in-law was “horrified” by her efforts, the former Harlaw Academy teacher found a unique way to sew.
“I’m massively dyslexic which has been a total gift,” Liz explained.
“I always tell my pupils dyslexia is an absolute gift because we see things in a different way from other people.
“And I can’t use patterns. I just can look at something, cut out the material and make it.
“It’s absolutely fabulous.”
Aberdeen University, Phoenix Theatre and family life
Throughout the 30 years of Phoenix’s history, the Milltimber resident has had a hand in the creating of every costume worn on stage.
Originally from Arbroath and Carnoustie, when it was time to choose a university to pursue teaching, Liz decided to follow her boyfriend to Aberdeen.
It was through picking up drama at university headed up by the great Annie Ingles that Liz joined Attic and met her best friend and co-founder of Phoenix, Clare Haggart.
The pair were leading ladies and dancers for many years. Some of Liz’s favourite moments included playing Miss Sarah in Guys and Dolls at HMT and being Nancy in Oliver Twist.
In 1990, after many people involved with the student show wanted to keep performing, the best friends decided to create Phoenix Theatre.
They put on their first production Annie in 1991 which was met with resounding success and got a good write-up in The P&J.
However, while the drama stuck, the boyfriend did not.
After Liz met one of her Hillhead housemates and her now-husband Dr Robert Milne who was studying medicine, she admitted: “The poor soul got dumped”.
Bob and Liz got married aged 24 in July 1975 and had three children together: Jennie, Jonnie and Katie – the last who was born 10 days after Phoenix’s first show.
HMT seat to celebrate legacy
Alongside family life and Phoenix, Liz went on to be a French and English teacher at Harlaw Academy for ten years.
As a result, Liz is well-known by many.
In 2019, she and Clare even received British Empire Medals (BEM) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for their work as co-directors of the Phoenix Theatre and Phoenix Youth Theatre.
In honour of all that she has given in her 73 years, Liz’s family wanted to do something special for her birthday this year to commemorate her legacy and decided to get a seat plaque at His Majesty’s Theatre.
They reached out to people in Phoenix for help and less than 24 hours later, they had reached the fundraising target of £450.
“And the money just kept coming in,” said Jonnie.
More and more people, including Laura Main from Call the Midwife who was Phoenix’s original Annie, asked how to get involved and by the end, they had raised over £3,500.
They decided to give the added funds to cancer charity Friends of Anchor who Liz had said were “wonderful” to her during a scary time.
“When you get a cancer diagnosis, it’s quite terrifying,” she said.
“They make you feel so safe, so cared for, almost so loved. You just put yourself in their hands and you relax.
“The staff and volunteers are so, so wonderful.”
HMT seat made for tearful birthday
The wonderful surprise left Liz spending most of her birthday “sobbing her heart out”.
Receiving messages from pupils she taught over 30 years ago, she said: “I’m overwhelmed by the amount of messages and the things that people have said.
“I just couldn’t believe it. It was amazing.”
On the day, she was shown to her seat by a former Phoenix Youth Theatre student and she gave the plaque a wee polish.
She added: “It’s a special seat to me because it’s the very first time I saw Blood Brothers…I was eight months pregnant with Jonnie at the time.”
Phoenix Theatre is our extended family
As a close family, it has been a very difficult time. Especially as dad and husband Bob also has advanced Alzheimer’s.
Since his mum’s diagnosis, Jonnie said one of the most emotional moments was handing his mum their six-month-old daughter Grace after she was born.
“We placed Grace into mum’s arms while saying, ‘I’d like to introduce you to Grace Elizabeth Milne’.
“Mum then couldn’t hold her for a few moments because she was crying so much.”
“It’s been very, very tough for all of us, but we’re finding ways through it,” Jonnie admitted.
“When it comes to Phoenix, because mum and her partner, Clare have instilled that nice family approach… it is like having a massive family of hundreds of people.
“As down and depressed as you could get and sometimes do get in this situation, there’s been that really, really heartwarming element to it.”
‘I’ve had a wonderful, wonderful life’
As we were chatting, Liz was very practical about the next steps and said they were clearing out her husband’s old office to make room for a hospital bed as she would need one soon.
“So it’s again something to look forward to a nice, comfy bed,” Liz said.
“I’ve had a wonderful, wonderful life and how many people get to live to 73? You’ve got to be glass half full.
“I would have loved a bit longer…I would have loved to have seen Gracie grow up a bit more and my other grandchild in Canada as well, Waverley.
“But if it’s not to be, it’s not to be. We could all get run down by a bus tomorrow so just be thankful for what you’ve been given.”
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