It only takes one person.

Yes, I know. The Winchester Mystery House is supposed to be fun and creepy and eerie and exciting...however, I think I'm the only person in our whole tour who was truly sad the entire tour through the 65,000 square foot mansion.

Sarah and William Winchester were married, and 20 years later Sarah lost her daughter and her husband. Although she was incredibly loaded with millions of dollars, she was so upset and distraught that she sought the advice of a Boston psychic. This psychic told Sarah the Winchester family was cursed, and the only way to avenge the deaths and break the curse was to build a house and never stop building. For 38 years Sarah was obsessed with building and building and building her house... The psychic told her that if she were to stop building, then she would die. So Sarah hired contractors to build the inside of the house, and she even redecorated some rooms over 600 times! The house eventually grew to 65,000 square feet; 7 stories (in the 1906 earthquake the top 3 levels collapsed), 47 fireplaces, 2 basements, 3 elevators, 160 rooms, etc etc etc (although there is only 1 shower in all 13 bathrooms...weird.)

There are several creepy things about this house: people say it's haunted, there are staircases and doors that lead to nowhere (literally! Some doors open to a wall, some staircases lead to the ceiling!), and Sarah was obsessed with the number 13. Everything in the house revolved around this number -- coat hooks, drain holes in sinks, ceiling tiles, number of stairs on staircases, numbers of candles in chandeliers, colored stones in windows, etc.

Now granted, the death of family members is devastating and could understandably drive people to the looney house. But it amazes me how one person -- one psychic -- drastically changed the life of Sarah. Because Sarah listened to this crazy lady, it has affected the lives of so many others. I have always disagreed with anyone ever visiting a psychic, fortune teller, tarot card reader...nothing good can come from it. And this once again, reinforces my theory. It only took one person to push Sarah over the edge, this is so tragic. We'll never know what her life could have been...but what could it have been if she didn't visit that psychic? We'll never know...so sad...