In the 1970s, New Yorker Joan Nestle (left), 84, co-founded what would become the world’s largest lesbian “herstory” archive. One morning in 1998, Australian Dianne Otto, 72, came over – and they’ve been together ever since. Joan Nestle (left): “That’s Di (right).
She’ll find the green. She’s my home.” Credit: Photograph by Chris Hopkins Joan: I was living on [New York’s] Upper West Side and finishing my treatment for colon cancer.
My partner of 10 years had left me and I was pretty much in a state of despair, at 58, that I’d never be loved again. One morning, the telephone rang. It was my friend, Sue, and she said, “I’m in town and I have my Australian friend with me.
Can we come over?” There’s a knock on the door. Now Sue is my height – I’m five foot one [155 centimetres] – but behind her was this, to me, giant of a woman, henna-haired, with an Australian accent. Di was living two blocks away, going to Columbia University.
Everything she said made heart and brain sense. Before she left, Di said, “You know, Joan, I’m taking a course in gender and the law and I bet my professor would love you to sit in.” So I’d go with her once a week up to 116th Street.
Di always had her backpack, walked with long strides. I’m a Bronx Jew with short legs. I was always running to keep up with her.
My old partner, Lee, had left me to be with a younger blonde; she was terrified of cancer. I’d walk in the park and Di would come with me. I.
