Kate Haas Recounts Son Simon's Toddler Talk About 'Toddy Ro' In Their Oregon Home

Kate Haas, an editor at Literary Mama who lives in Portland, Oregon, wrote that she assumed her son Simon had developed an imaginary friend when, at age 3, he described a figure named Toddy Ro. Haas said she was preparing lunch one afternoon when she heard Simon speaking in the next room. When she asked who he was talking to, Simon replied, "Oh, that's Toddy Ro."

The exchange followed months in which Simon, as an infant, repeatedly fixed his gaze on a single spot over Haas's left shoulder while she nursed him in the living room of the family's 1908 wood-frame house. Haas said she turned to look each time but found nothing there. The incidents occurred at different times of day but always in that same location.

Haas said she pressed Simon for details in the days after the lunchtime conversation. Simon repeated that Toddy Ro was "here," adding, "I see Toddy Ro sometimes." The only physical description Haas said she elicited was that Toddy wore "a funny hat." Simon spoke with the figure for about a year before the conversations stopped.

The house, which dates to 1908, sits in a period when, according to Haas's account, most Americans were born and died at home. Haas wrote that she had never experienced anything she considered supernatural, in that house or elsewhere.

A recent Gallup poll cited in her account found that over a third of Americans believe in ghosts, a figure she put at 39%. Haas wrote that she does not count herself among them.

Haas said infants are able to detect changes in light that adults do not notice, and that young children sometimes hallucinate without an underlying medical condition, a phenomenon that typically resolves with age. She wrote that she is sure Simon never saw anything supernatural in the house.

Research institutions have examined questions about consciousness after death. The Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia School of Medicine evaluates evidence bearing on whether consciousness survives death. Gary Schwartz, a professor at the University of Arizona, studies the same question using optical measurement techniques. A large-scale study of near-death experiences conducted in 2008 reported that it was not possible to prove the reality of patients' experiences, and equally not possible to dismiss them.

Simon is now in college. Haas wrote that she recently asked him about Toddy Ro while recalling stories from his childhood. Simon said he did not remember, then added, "You remember the strangest things."

Haas's writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe Magazine, Slate and Salon. She previously served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco and taught high school English.