Ausekļi

The Ausekli house was built on this site by a famous and ancient family Dambekalni, who were one of the first shipbuilders in Latvia and whose ships sailed in near and far seas. Moreover, Ausekli was not the only house built by Damebakalni in Kaltene. From 1877 to 1908, they owned 21 sailboats. Ausekli was built in 1910 and was owned by Lizete (nee Kreitzbergs) and Jānis Dambekalni. Four children grew up in the family - sons Jānis, Fricis and Indriķis, as well as sister Paulīne. Dambekalni made sure that all their children got a good education. The paths of life and the Second World War, which broke out in Latvia in 1942, took the children of Dambekalni almost or to all four corners of the sky. The eldest son Jānis was deported to Siberia when the Soviet Union came to power, where he also died in 1955. The middle son Fricis, who, as a qualified ship captain, went on long voyages and crossed the seas and oceans of the world, was a commander in the Russian Baltic Sea Fleet and later founded the Riga Port Police and was also the chief of the port of Riga. To save himself from the Red Terror, he went to refugee camps and ended his life in 1965 in Madison, Wisconsin, USA. Ausekli was inherited from his parents in 1927 by the youngest son Indriķis, who set up a farm and small goods store in a part of the house, and worked in the Kaltene post and telephone auxiliary department, which was located right in Ausekli. The young owners of the house lived a harmonious life with their two daughters, Gunta and Malda until the horrors of the war and the arrival of the Russians as well as the reckoning with the local intelligentsia and successive landlords forced them to flee. Indrikis with then 8-year-old Malda and 12-year-old Gunta left his native shore and family home with a heavy heart and went across the sea to Sweden in 1944 in refugee boats, where he ended his life in Lidingö in 1957. Only sister Paulīne remained in Latvia and rests in the Mālpils cemetery. During the Soviet years, a library and a post office were established in Ausekli which were located there until 2011, but other residents lived on the other side of the house, who took care of the house as best they knew how and according to their abilities. In the 1990s, the daughters Malda and Gunta managed to recover Ausekli and other neighbouring properties. The sisters and their children and grandchildren visited Latvia on regular basis, not only living in their childhood and ancestral homes, but also restoring the house to its old appearance as much as possible. However, time passed and the sisters approached the age of ninety and it became more and more difficult to take care of their childhood home. They had to make the sad decision to hand over the house to others who would be able and willing to love, restore and cherish it. We, the Krumiņi family, got into this story completely unplanned and by chance, namely when I, mother Ieva, who has worked as a Swedish language translator and Swedish language teacher, was asked to help with translation in connection with this transaction. The potential buyers were on their way to Ausekli. I informed Malda's family about the progress of the transaction, until they asked me to go with them to Ausekli, because it was planned to conclude the deal with another potential buyer that day. The meeting with Ausekli was fateful. I walked around Auskeli. The buyer said they needed some time to decide. The transaction did not take place. But it was clear to me from the first glance that this is the house I have wanted all my conscious life, my dream and longing. In full. Authentic, charming and right by the sea! Despite of costing a fortune. This is not simply a story that everyone likes to be by the sea. This is a story about family roots and longings, about my mother and my mother's cousin, who lived in another nearby seaside village, Engure. About the fact that my mother's cousin Zina's family, just like Malda's family, were forced to flee in boats to Sweden, finding safety and prosperity there, but leaving their hearts on the other side of the Baltic sea - in Latvia. The love for the sea was passed on from both my mother and my mother's cousin Zina, whom I visited and lived with every summer, as soon as Latvia regained its independence, and it was possible to travel outside its borders. Zina never stopped longing for the sea and her home, which, unfortunately, she did not manage to get back. My mother's life also took her away from Engure, only allowing her to return there from time to time to visit. My mother and the other Swedish mother, Zina, are no longer among us, but Ausekli are in their place, as a living monument and the fulfillment of the dream of all women. All the twists and turns of fate with Zina's escape to Sweden, my visit to Sweden and learning the Swedish language brought me to Ausekli as if by an invisible thread. Every time I go to the sea near Ausekli, I send greetings to the special women of my family and say, “My darlings, we have succeeded, we have our place by our beloved sea again!”

With gratitude
Ieva Krūmiņa, Ausekli owner