new york city, card game, based on novel or book, italian american, superstition, arranged marriage, mother-in-law, butcher's shop, devoutness, belief in god, seppuku, catholic, little italy, roman catholic church, death of daughter, convent (nunnery), death in childbirth, woman director, life of saint, fatima, religious delusions, ritual suicide, 1950s, 1960s, sudden death, sainthood, obsessive thoughts, cruel mother-in-law, death while asleep, grandmother granddaughter relationship, miracles, interfering mother-in-law, deprivation, piety, faith and religion, making a bet, mother-in-law daughter-in-law relationship, catholic schoolgirl, madam butterfly, catholic theology, religious calling, religious visions, unexplained death, pinochle, religious obsession,