Our Story
Hi! We are the Pringles, and we have a fun – maybe even enchanting – story we want to share with you.
At the end of 2019, we decided to search for a new home with a yard and lots of space for our dog and just-turned three year old son. We made a quick sale of our home, and through unwavering belief in our vision – and faith in the process – we found the perfect new home.
After 17 years in the same place, it was bitter sweet, and we wanted to fully enjoy the last months in the home and neighbourhood where we built our family. In February 2020, we started weekly Sunday morning walks around the neighbourhood to explore and play. We would always make a stop to the “fish pond” – a house up the hill with a lovely garden and fish pond, where we would watch and say hello to the koi fish. On one of these walks in late March, we noticed a yard FILLED with clovers, and I commented to my son how I loved to search for four leaf clovers when I was a child. We bent down together – and right in front of us was a four leaf clover. We couldn’t believe the chances. What luck!
The next Sunday morning, we set out on our usual route and stopped at the clover yard again. This time, we found another four leaf clover! That week, as my son and I were walking our dog one afternoon, he said to me, “Mommy, I want to find a five leaf clover!” I smiled and said “wow – ok!”, thinking to myself how much I loved his imagination, and not wanting to squash his enthusiasm with my thought that such a thing didn’t even exist. A few minutes later, our dog stopped to sniff and as I looked down, a five leaf clover was hanging just over the edge of the sidewalk beside me. I couldn’t believe it. This was the start our heaven sent clover journey.
Week after week we would continue our walks and come home with more clovers. Mostly it was me who found them, but my husband even found a few of his own. Finding these small signs of good luck and good fortune were signs to me; my mother passed away in 2002, and I often notice signs of her love and presence in nature. As the Covid-19 pandemic started, we became even more grateful for our blessings and the clovers became signs to me that everything would be okay.
In April 2020, it came time to say a final goodbye to our townhouse and neighbourhood. On our final Sunday walk, we were given a grand farewell with a handful of four leaf clovers, and even a six leaf clover!
We instantly loved our new home and new neighbourhood. We walk our dog twice each day, so we had lots of opportunity to explore the new parks and nearby streets. During the first week in our new home, we found two four leaf clovers in our backyard. This was an extremely special sign to me; it connected the blessings we received in the last chapter of our journey with the ones in this next step. It was as if my Mom was showing me her love would never lead us astray, she is always there, and we are right where we are supposed to be.
With the many unbelievable changes the Covid-19 pandemic caused in our lives, I found May 2020 an abnormally hard month. May is always a hard month for me; May has Mother’s Day, my Mom’s birthday, and the anniversary of her passing. On May 15th – my Mom’s birthday – I was feeling extra sad as we headed out on our morning walk. We stopped near the end of our driveway, where our yard meets our neighbour’s, so our pup could have a sniff. As I looked down- all I could see were four leaf clovers. I bent down to pick some, and kept finding more and more. I picked so many I couldn’t carry any more in my hands and I took them straight home. I had picked 42 four, five, and six leaf clovers. There could not have been a more obvious sign that this was my Mom, reminding me to be grateful for my wonderful life and to remember she is always with me.
As summer went on, we found more and more. We have found most in our yard and on our street. My favourite ones are those we aren’t searching for; the ones that are just there as I glance down. These are the ones I know are heaven sent.
By the end of 2020, we had found well over 350 clovers. As winter turned to spring in 2021, I wondered if we might find more. And then on March 5th, 2021, as we were doing “pine cone pickup” in our back yard – there was one. And to date, we have found at least 100 more. I even found my first seven leaf clover.
The most exciting day was when our son – now four years old – started to practice his counting with the leaves on clovers in a patch on our street. He has now found three of his own four leaf clovers.
I can’t explain this phenomenon as anything else but the way my Mom relentlessly continues to show me her love and guidance.
The only thing to do with so many clovers is to share the good fortune with others. Please visit our Share the Love page to get your own four leaf clover keychain, and all proceeds will benefit Canuck Place Children’s Hospice. You can visit their website at www.canuckplace.org to learn more about the amazing and important work they do.