All the Keefe family played bridge. Kathleen, along with Sister Mary Angela and Sister Mary Edith, and her other sister Mary, were all at one time regulars at the Charlottetown Duplicate Bridge Club. Maurice was an avid bridge player, and is remembered by the family as one of the first to head to the front room to set up a table. Over the years, Leslie won many tournaments, and even played once with actor Omar Sharif at a tournament in Toronto. He and his wife, who was as accomplished as he, once won a national duplicate title. When Sister Mary Angela and Sister Mary Edith came to Gerald’s home for a Sunday visit, they would engage in a marathon bridge game lasting well into the night, sometimes without even breaking for supper. Gerald even had a bridge game installed on a video device, and would often chastise the device for making a wrong bid or playing the wrong card. Visitors to Elmer’s home would invariably end up playing cards. When Sister Mary Angela retired to Mount St. Mary’s in Charlottetown, she was remembered by Sister Bernice Cullen for her continued active enjoyment of a game of bridge.

Playing bridge was a life—long passion for members of the Keefe family. Father Wilfred played bridge to the day of his death. He died suddenly while playing bridge with three fellow priests at the parish house in

St. Teresa’s.

Bridge is a card game played by four players in two competing partnerships. It uses a standard deck of 52 cards, and each player is dealt 13 cards each. The partners bid to reach a “contract” and the score is determined by the actual number of tricks achieved compared to the contract. Points are awarded accordingly. Although there is an element of chance, the game requires great skill and a high level of communication between partners. Communication is restricted, however, by the way

the bids are entered and the way the cards are actually played. The game is covered by a complex set of rules promulgated by the World Bridge Federation.

Bridge developed in the 1880s as a variation of whist, a classic English trick—taking card game played widely in the 18th and 19th century.

162 KATHLEEN MURPHY, MAITRIARC