A FOUR-LEAF CLOVER MEMORY

When I was a child my mother and I would look for four-leaf clovers whenever we were out in the garden. Almost every time we'd come upon a clover patch, she would reach down and immediately pluck out a perfect four-leafed specimen and hand it to me. It always amazed me how lucky she was at finding them. I was never that fortunate.

Today, four leaf clovers still hide from my ever-searching eyes. I look and look, but very seldom find one. I have Irish blood running in my veins and my relatives include many 'een' names among the women, including myself, but I seem to have missed out on 'the luck of the Irish' in finding a four-leaf clover.

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A favorite little memory of mine...
When St. Paddy's Day grows near,
Is one of my Mother and me, as a girl
Finding 4-leaf clover through the years.

It didn't have to be summer or spring...
She'd find them in rain or snow.
We'd walk the path and she'd glance down and pluck
A perfect one right by my toe!

I'd be looking myself, all over the place...
But her gaze was more keen than my own.
She'd reach in the grass, laughing with glee...
But all I could do was moan.

Her luck continued later as my children looked too,
But she always came away with the most.
My daughter was next, and then my son...
But my luck I could never boast.

Years later, long after my Mother was gone,
One Spring my granddaughter came over.
She brought me a beautiful bouquet of flowers--
And A fist-full of four-leaf clover!

I still try to look now from time to time,
But my luck I have had to recant.
I admit I'm no good at finding the clover...
So now I've just bought a big Shamrock plant!