Remember how 86 years after the Titanic sank, a beautifully wrinkled Rose told her great-granddaughter that a woman’s heart was a sea of secrets? Now imagine, not one but two women and what their hearts filled with love for each other, would be capable of withholding.
A Secret Love, the latest Netflix documentary premiering April 29, is the story of two such women, Pat Henschel and Terry Donahue. The two gay octogenarian women, who lived together for most of their life, went without revealing their relationship to the world for over 6 decades.
“I have been with them since day 1. They were always Aunt Pat and Aunt Terry. They were gay, and I didn’t know until three years ago!”
A family member of the couple shares in the film’s trailer out this week
Produced by Ryan Murphy, the film highlights the evolution of LGBTQ rights since the two women first met in 1947 till they are settling into a retirement facility a few years back.
The documentary follows Terry and Pat through their professional lives in Chicago.
At the same time, they deal with other life tragedies like aging and illness before coming out to their conservative families and deciding on whether to tie the knot or not.
Not so women-ly women
Born in the 1940s, not-so-liberal America, Terry and Pat’s love was kept hidden under many veils. Despite living under one roof since their 20s, to those around them, the women were either good friends, roommates or just cousins who lived together.
Terry was a baseball player, a catcher for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Many will be familiar with the women’s league from the 1992 movie A League of Their Own, starring Geena Davis and Madonna.
Playing baseball was by itself a feat unheard of for women in the times. Women players were forced to wear dresses and heavy lipstick just to shed the perception of being lesbians.
Being gay was a crime, and the worst-case scenarios, if caught, included anything between being disowned by your family to a jail term. So, for over half a century, these brave women tread an unbeaten path, silently and solemnly.
What’s in a name?
The film’s name reminds us of the 1950s Doris Day song “A Secret Love.” The song was featured in the movie Calamity Jane, with the titular lead role also played by Day.
Calamity Jane was a Wild West heroine who dressed like a man, helped bring star attraction to Deadwood, and also found love. In more ways than one, she was not unlike our heroes Pat and Terry.
Wait till you hear the lyrics of the song. The resemblance to their story is uncanny.
‘At last, my heart’s an open door, and my secret love’s a secret no more.’
A Secret Love by Doris Day
Once I had a secret love
That lived within the heart of me
All too soon my secret love
Became impatient to be free
So I told a friendly star
The way that dreamers often do
Just how wonderful you are
And why I’m so in love with you
Now I shout it from the highest hills
Even told the golden daffodils
At last, my heart’s an open door
And my secret love’s no secret anymore
Another slice of queer history
During the 65 years these women spent closeted, a larger and much louder revolution hit America. The air around homosexuality began to thin, and gender came to be accepted as a spectrum.
So much so that when the women finally came out, their great-nephew Chris Bolan immediately decided to commit the story to film.
Bolan, who is also the director of the film, even managed to convince producer Brendan Mason. The latter usually does not work on documentaries.
In an interview with TIME, Bolan said that he knew he had to make a film after Donahue and Henschel came out to him in 2009.
Once they realized it was possible to live openly, the women became “giddy schoolgirls” who started spilling out “seven decades’ worth of stories,” he recalled.
The documentary was shot between 2013 and 2018, just in time for Pat’s death in 2019 at age 93. She was diagnosed with Parkinsons disease, soon after which the couple decided to come out to their family.
“She didn’t want to go to the grave feeling like she’d lived a lie,” Bolan told of his great-aunt.
The film has been executive produced by Blumhouse known for thrillers like “Get Out.” Other producers include Alexa L. Fogel.
Watch A Secret Love for a dose of much-needed hope that love can survive even in the harshest of times!
Happy Quaran-streaming!
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