A Secret Love

Terry Donahue and Pat Henschel lived together for more than sixty years. They told the family they were cousins. Terry had played in the American women's professional baseball league in the forties; Pat moved to Chicago with her and the two built an entire life on that lie. The documentary begins when they are in their eighties: their health is failing, the question of moving into care arises, and the time comes to tell the family the truth. Chris Bolan directs. He is Terry Donahue's great nephew, so a member of the family. The dilemma at the centre is ageing. Coming out thirty years ago was a choice; now the decision is entangled with care, inheritance and who gets to decide, and the cost of the delay is concrete. The league Terry played in is a real historical fact: a women's baseball league founded during the Second World War while the men were at the front. Archive footage makes up the first section. The family side is the hardest part. Their niece Diana is caught between acceptance and protection, and the film does not put her in the wrong. Ryan Murphy is among the producers and it was released on Netflix in 2020. Its weakness is structure; the argument over the care home takes more room than it should and the historical section is left unfinished. Who it is for: viewers interested in LGBT history and documentaries about old age. Who it is not for: the emotional pitch is high, the narrative is scattered, and some family scenes sit close to the edge of privacy.