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During the spring of 2025, a woman felt a sharp pain shoot from her hip while she bent over to tend to her garden. Then she fell over and was unable to rise.

Her spouse summoned emergency services and she spent the night in a hospital, where, at 57, doctors discovered she had a mass on her spine. The diagnosis was metastatic breast cancer.

"I had no warning that that was going to happen, and I was devastated. Initially, I wasn't fully aware that it was a recurrence of my breast cancer which had spread to my spine, a location is common for it to go," she explained.

"Should I pass away early, I could not imagine leaving [my husband] here. We really don’t have little family. We don’t have any children."

When Trump won the 2024 presidential election, Michaela’s husband braced to be mandated to return to in-person work at the Department of Transportation in Washington DC. He had been teleworking since the beginning of the global pandemic, from their residence outside Baltimore.

On Trump’s first day in office in January, an executive order was signed requiring all federal agencies end all remote work arrangements. The office of personnel management instructed agencies to implement the policy irrespective of collective bargaining contracts.

"My spouse is a long-time employee with the administration, and he is highly skilled in his field. He has worked for 20 years more now, so it’s exhausting for him. We’re in our 50s. He departed the house at 5 a.m. in the morning and returning at 7 p.m. at night," she stated. Her identity is protected as her husband remains employed at the agency and fears retaliation.

During the summer, she underwent an operation, a laminectomy. Shortly following that, she had stereotactic radiation, and is now taking an cancer treatment called Kisqali and hormone therapy.

She had stage one breast cancer in 2014, but was able to treat it, as it was caught early, with a surgical procedure, radiation, chemotherapy and tamoxifen. Through regular checkups, she managed her health, before her latest diagnosis of advanced metastatic breast cancer.

Surviving Reductions in Force and Restructuring

Throughout this year, her spouse avoided reductions in force at the DOT. By May, thousands of employees had left the agency, due to those reductions as well as employees retiring and people quitting.

According to a internal document on its plan for staff reductions and reorganization, the agency estimated that by the end of next year, its workforce would be cut by approximately 20 percent from earlier levels.

This would correlate to over ten thousand fewer employees at the department. Federal employee cuts have exceeded goals, with hundreds of thousands of workers leaving the federal government and a small number of new hires.

"We were worried about layoffs. It is clear based on the way this administration functions, that this remains a constant threat because they ignore established rules," Michaela explained.

She added that specialized positions at the agency are difficult to find and contractors often want to pay reduced wages.

Enduring a Government Shutdown

While the DOT was losing staff, on October 1st a closure of the U.S. government began, lasting for 43 days, the most protracted in American history.

Michaela and her husband marked their 18th wedding anniversary in early November, during the ongoing closure, but stayed at home because they couldn’t afford to go out to eat due to her husband not being paid for several weeks.

She is thankful the government shutdown concluded as she was worried about medical bills, but laments the rising costs in healthcare premiums she and her husband have experienced, as well as for those who rely on insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace.

"I felt desperate. I felt destitute. I was astonished, scared, and I observed my husband and on several occasions where he was sitting at his desk and he gazed out the window. He was getting depressed," she said.

Feeling Targeted

"We’re just one drop in a ocean of millions people who strive diligently to get where they are, who try to do the correct thing, and the people who are setting policy are seemingly dismantling and managing the government and treating government employees like adversaries, that they are not citizens, and that they should be attacked. And I take personal offense to that," she said.

Future Uncertainty

She is now worried is another possible looming federal closure on 30 January 2026, with the bulk of government funding set to lapse again absent a permanent agreement.

"The continuing resolution is up for renewal again at the end of January and I fear this will repeat all over again. We’ve been through multiple closures. This by far was the most severe," she stated. "I am already fighting a serious disease, and I am uncertain what the future holds. I could be here for another year or two. I could be here for 10 years."