The owners of the Kolcene (now Bīriņi) manor, Aleksandrs and Eleonora Pistolkors, had three children – a daughter, Renāte, and two sons, Maksis and Eriks.
One day, the family received news that their youngest son, Maksis, had died in service. As a result, Eriks, experiencing the death of his younger brother Maksis, fell into a severe depression. At that time, a nice and lovely girl worked as a maid for his sister Renāte, who was entrusted with taking care of Erik during his illness, and soon the household noticed that the relationship between the two young people went far beyond friendly conversation.
After some time, Eriks told his mother that he wanted to marry the servant girl. The mother could not tolerate the idea that her son was marrying a girl of low class, and decided to act deceitfully, hoping that the maid would leave the manor if she was fooled. She wrote a letter that Erik allegedly left before leaving the manor. It said that he had decided to marry a woman of his own class. At that time, her mother did not know that the girl was pregnant. Unable to bear the bitter disappointment and the impending disgrace, the girl hanged herself. Erik, unable and unwilling to live without his beloved, went out into the manor park and shot himself. This happened in the winter of 1912, but the love story of the two young people is still talked about today.
Her daughter Renate, despite the previous events, also fell in love with a man of a lower class – the son of a forester, Paul Moltrecht. She, not listening to her mother’s threats, left home and married her beloved without her mother’s blessing. However, it is known that later her mother reconciled, blessed this union and became a grandmother with a large group of grandchildren.
These love stories were a serious challenge to the beliefs and rules of society at the time, as well as proofs of deep and strong love.