(COLORADO SPRINGS) — Luisa Graff Jewelers is a family owned and operated business in Northeast Colorado Springs. They recently celebrated 25 years of business.

As CEO, Luisa Graff’s story started when she was just 12 years old. At that young age, she became an immigrant by escaping dictatorship in Peru, all by herself.

“When my mother finally escaped Peru and came to America years later, the only thing that we were able to escape with was our jewelry,” she said.

Finally reunited, the two then went to a jewelry store to sell what they had and make some money. Graff was later offered a job at that same store, and as they say, the rest is history.

She opened up Luisa Graff Jewelers in late 1999, and still runs it to this day with her veteran son, Andrew Graff.

“I would say a good 15% of the jewelry that we find a home for, is created in-house. About 5-8% of our rings are Luiza Graff designs, but with over 10,000 items of jewelry, that’s a lot,” said Andrew, Luisa’s son who now works as the Store Manager and Co-owner.

The store has a true family atmosphere, since one of their Master Jewelers Doug Franzen started working with Luisa when she was only 26.

“We started together and we will finish together,” said Luisa, “We laugh together. I don’t want to say we laugh at each other… We laugh with each other,” she added as she laughed.

Franzen taught her son Andrew to make jewelry, at about six years old.

“Andrew was such a fun guy. As a little guy, he was so interested in how to make jewelry, do this and that,” said Franzen.

Andrew was not an employee at the time, but a young boy who was just very interested in the line of work. Nonetheless, his mom was always worried about his curiosity getting them in trouble for child labor laws.

“I was too scared to tell people that it was my son doing them, because I thought maybe there was a law against it you know,” said Luisa.

Andrew added that, “I was your typical boy. I was very into gemstones, minerals, rocks, mud paddies. So it was really cool when I got back from the military, to be able to work alongside Doug. Who literally was one of my childhood memories. That is just one of the best memories that I can have.”

Now, Andrew Graff hopes to carry on the family business with his own children. He says they’re already interested in gemstones.