Hundreds of 4- and 5-leaf clovers: Oceanport woman's amazing gift

OCEANPORT - When it comes to four-leaf clovers, Cathy Doran is beating the odds.

The Oceanport resident and U.S. postal worker has found hundreds of them, including 17 in one day in her own yard.

"They call to me, I get a feeling and sure enough, there's one," said Doran, 62, who first experienced the calling when she was in her 20s.

Most experts agree that the odds of finding a four-leaf clover is 1 in 10,000. That means, for every 10,000 clovers, only one will have the anomaly of a fourth clover.

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But Doran's collection also contains three five-leaf clovers that she's found. The odds of finding one of those is 1 in a million.

She doesn't know how she got her sixth-sense for clovers. The gift may simply be Irish luck. Doran is half-Irish on her father's side.

St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, was said to have used a three-leaf clover as a symbol of the Christian Holy Trinity. Known as the shamrock, it is the symbol of Ireland.

But in her family, the only other person who had the knack for finding four-leaf clovers was her grandmother on her mother's side, who was German and English.

The calling skipped a generation.

"My mother was jealous. She couldn't find them," said Doran.

According to lore, each leaf of the clover has a specific meaning: faith, hope and love. The fourth leaf, if one is so fortunate to find one, represents luck.

Whether that's true or not, is debatable.

"It may have brought me luck in life with family and love, but not in the lottery. I've bought tickets with four-leaf clovers in my pocket," said Doran.

She keeps her clovers in books but she likes to share them with others who might need a little lift.

Doran has found most of the four-leaf clovers, including the extraordinary five-leaf clovers in her front yard, meaning her home is literally sitting on a patch of good luck.

But she's also picked them on her travels to Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

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"She's never been wrong when she gets the feeling," said her fiance Rob Garratano, 59, of Oceanport.

There is a bit of science to her method and she said once you learn to recognize their pattern, the easier they become to find.

"They tend to be taller. If you find one, they usually grow in bunches on a vine," said Doran, who leads reporters to a four-leaf clover in the video above.

Dan Radel: Twitter@danielradelapp; 732-643-4072; dradel@gannettnj.com