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Family rallies around last of 24 siblings

By Vera Chinese

BARBARAELLEN KOCH PHOTO

Elaine Goode (left) comforts her aunt Rosella ‘Teenie’ Miles-Johson, 84, who is the last of 24 Miles family siblings. The family’s matriarch took center stage at a massive reunion Saturday at Stotzky Park. The Rev. Oliver Miles of Riverhead, also a relative, led the family in prayer.

Rosella “Teenie” Miles-Johnson, now 84, hadn’t met many of her nieces and nephews or their children and grandchildren

Vera Chinese has been the editor of northforker.com and northforker magazines since May 2014. Prior to that she spent two and a half years as a staff reporter for the New York Daily News. She joined the Riverhead News-Review as a staff writer in January 2010 and was named Associate Web Editor nine months later. She previously worked for the Southampton Press Western Edition and was named the third place 2008 Rookie Reporter of the Year by the New York Press Association. She graduated from Wagner College in 2006 where she received a bachelor's degree in English. She earned a master's degree in English education from New York University in 2007. She is a 2002 graduate of Eastport High School and has lived on the East End for more than 20 years.

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