114: Stories From My Mother's Sister

I found this photograph of my aunt (my mother's sister) listening to Riley talk. It was in a box of photographs Riley saved. Is it from 1970 in Hollywood? 1969? I'm not sure.

On Monday, February 16th, 2026, my husband and I drove 90 minutes north of Tucson, Arizona to see my mother's younger sister. I hadn't seen my aunt for decades, the last time I saw her was when I was in beauty school in Minneapolis, Minnesota, way back in 1992.

Recently, my mother told me that my aunt winters in Arizona, staying for a few months each winter in an RV park in a single wide trailer, so I made plans to see her. When we arrived, I realized that I forgot to pack the old photograph (above) which I'd intended to show her. I wanted to hear stories, what she remembered, and what year she thought it was.

In the photo, you can see Riley is talking and gesturing, a cow skull hangs behind him, in an office that he shared with Jan (my mother). The cow skull was Jan's.

When we pulled up to my aunt's place in the RV park, the first thing I noticed was the cow skull hanging off the siding of her home, much like the one my mother had all those years ago.

There's so much natural beauty in Arizona, but some ugly, too. Driving to my aunt's small town, we passed by at least two large prison compounds surrounded by barbed wire fences. I did an internet search of the town, and it has NINE prisons! Talk about completely changing the culture of a community, as probably everyone works for one of these prisons or knows someone who does.

Anyway, back to my visit with my mother's younger sister.

My aunt told me the story of how my mother vanished in the1960s, and how she was desperate to find her again, especially after she'd gone through a terrible divorce from a man who lied constantly, a man who my aunt referred to as a "con man" but didn't elaborate on what the cons were. She had three kids with her ex-husband, and it was a rough ride divorcing. "I wanted to talk to my only sister, you know?" my aunt said. Back in the 1960s, you had to look people up in the phone book, but my aunt had no idea where to look.

"I went all the way to New York from Minnesota to find her," my aunt said. "I knew the name of Jan's first husband, Ronald Miglionico, and found his address." She still had it memorized after over fifty years. She went to his place on Bowery Street, up the stairs to his apartment, and knocked on his door.

"Do you know where Jan is?" She asked.

Ronald said he had no idea where Jan went, but knew she'd left Reading, Pennsylvania with his kid, (my half-sister, Lisa) and Riley. He said that a social worker had contacted him, as Jan was seeking child support.

"You can call the social worker, she knows where Jan is," Ronald said.

My aunt took the number of the social worker, contacted her, and they had a meeting. The social worker said she couldn't give out any personal information about Jan, but if my aunt wanted to write a note, she'd pass it along.

My aunt wrote the note and gave it to the social worker. She didn't hear back from Jan for three or four months! By then Jan and Riley had moved around so much––Minnesota, Chicago, Portland, San Francisco, to Hollywood.

Riley and Jan met when my older sister was two or so, in 1962, shortly after Ronald dumped my mother and sister. I was born in 1965. I didn't meet my only aunt until I was in grade school, she came out to Hollywood to see us with her three kids. I had no concept of who they were, or what cousins were, not really. We had no contact with extended family until then, because when my mother ran off with my father, he made her promise something.

"If you leave town with me, you can never contact anyone you knew before me, not even your own family," Riley said.

Jan agreed to that, who knows why? I've asked her. There's never a clear answer, except that she was only 22 years old, she'd been dumped by her husband, had a toddler, and here was this man 20 years older who seemed charming and talented. He gave reasons why he had to hide out (people were after him–– the FBI, plus his old business partner in New York got balled up in the Payola scandal, and he'd been dealing with shady characters and ended up with his throat cut from ear to ear. Those same people were after Riley, according to his version of events, stories that seem crazy to me).

During the visit my aunt said, "Me and your mom both hitched up with con-men, isn't that wild? And why did we both do that? Why? I wonder about that," she said.

I wonder about that, too.