Flipping through their grandmother’s cookbook always brings back fond memories for Lora Lee and Tom Ecobelli. Laurina Ecobelli was known for her Italian cooking in Ballston Spa and owned a popular restaurant. 

“My earliest memory of being in the restaurant was sleeping in a bread box when I was 2-years-old next to the pizza oven,” Lora Lee Ecobelli said.

Her grandchildren say not only did Laurina make sure everyone was well fed, including family, friends, employees and the local residents, but she also helped others pay bills, offered housing and donating money whenever she could.

“We at this point growing up we didn’t know her story, and to know her story now, to know what she accomplished and the amount of lives she touched it’s pretty moving,” Tom Ecobelli said.

Shortly before Laurina’s passing in 1981, she gave her grandchildren her journal. 

When Lora Lee and Tom opened it, they learned their grandmother’s story of working in a Montgomery County mill and farm at a young age forced by her stepfather. At home, that same man sexually abused and impregnated her at 13-years-old. 

“She persevered. She never backed down,” Lora Lee said.

Laurina eventually took her stepfather to court. He was convicted and spent several years in jail.

Now decades later, her grandchildren are looking to share Laurina's story, overcoming childhood trauma by showing strength and resilience to create a successful life, in a short film.

“The story was too important. The fact that it was based on a true story and a journal that they discovered was kind of everything you need for a great movie,” said Sylvia Caminer, the director of "Laurina." 

Currently, they are raising money for this film, which they’re hoping to begin production in the coming weeks. 

“If a child back in the 1920s, who was an immigrant could do it, we feel like hopefully that will give people the strength to talk about their issues and what they’ve been kind of faced with,” Caminer said.

With the MeToo movement and women’s rights frequently discussed today, Lora Lee and Tom say it’s important to make the movie now.

Despite what their grandmother went through, they say she never saw herself as a victim and that’s what the hope to make this movie about. 

“To be able to give people courage to find their voice,” Lora Lee said. “People who have been victims of domestic violence to really find their strength and their courage, and speak up, and do something to stop it.”