Netflix’s new documentary A Secret Love introduces viewers to the beautiful tale of Pat Henschel and Terry Donahue, longtime-lovers who had to hide their relationship for much of their lives.
The two women met in 1947, when Terry, then aged 22, was in Canada, taking a break from baseball.
Terry played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, and attitudes towards homosexuality at the time were such that players were required to wear skirts in an effort to ward off presumptions that they were gay.
Through the '40s and '50s, Pat, who was 18 when they met, would travel with Terry on her baseball tours and watch her play.
The couple lived together in Chicago (as “roommates”), and remained together, in secret, for decades - only coming out to their families in 2009 when they were in their 80s.
Where are Pat and Terry now?
The documentary arrives with a bittersweet air, having followed Pat and Terry from 2013 to 2018.
Sadly in 2019, Terry passed away at the age of 93 after battling Parkinson’s disease at the end of her life.
In 2017, the couple moved to Saskatchewan, Canada, where Pat still lives now.
Pat spends her time "going to casinos and movie theatres and playing bingo," Chris Bolan, Terry’s great-nephew and the documentary’s director, recently told the Chicago Tribune.
She also reportedly still sees Bolan’s mother Diana frequently.
Speaking to Time magazine, Bolan said Terry and Pat were like "giddy schoolgirls" as they told "seven decades' worth of stories”.
Terry felt “unburdened” after coming out, he added: “She didn’t want to go to the grave feeling like she’d lived a lie."
Pat told Time that keeping their relationship a secret became “second nature” after so long, but that coming out made her feel connected to the world.
“You can become a part of what’s going on all around you,” she said.
A Secret Love Story is available to watch on Netflix now.
