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During the spring of 2025, a woman experienced a sudden, stabbing ache shoot from her hip while she bent over to tend to her garden. Then she fell over and couldn’t get back up.

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

"There was no indication that that was going to happen, and I was heartbroken. Initially, I wasn't fully aware that it was part of my breast cancer that had metastasized to my spine, a location was a common place for it to go," she said.

"If I were to die prematurely, I cannot bear the thought of leaving [my husband] here. We really don’t have any family. We are without children of our own."

When Trump won the 2024 election, her spouse braced to be mandated to return to in-person work at the Department of Transportation in Washington DC. He had worked remotely since the onset of the Covid-19 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 enact the order despite existing union agreements.

"My husband’s a veteran in government service, and he is highly skilled in his field. He has worked for two decades more now, so it is draining for him. We’re in our 50s. He was leaving the house at 5 a.m. in the morning and returning at seven at night," she stated. Her identity is protected as her husband still works at the Department of Transportation and fears retaliation.

In July, Michaela had surgery, a laminectomy. A few weeks after that, she had targeted radiation therapy, and is now taking an oncology regimen called Kisqali and hormone therapy.

She was previously diagnosed with stage one breast cancer in 2014, but successfully treated it, as it was caught early, with a partial lumpectomy, radiation, chemotherapy and tamoxifen. With consistent monitoring, she managed her health, prior to her recent diagnosis of advanced metastatic breast cancer.

Navigating Reductions in Force and Reorganization

Throughout this year, Michaela’s husband avoided reductions in force at the Department of Transportation. By spring, thousands of employees had departed the department, due to those reductions as well as retirements and voluntary resignations.

Per a internal document on its plan for reductions in force and restructuring, 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 exiting the federal government and only a fraction of replacements.

"We were concerned about layoffs. It is clear based on the way things are operating, that this is always on the table because policies disregard the law," she elaborated.

She added that jobs for specializations at the agency are difficult to find and private firms often want to pay reduced wages.

Facing a Government Shutdown

While the DOT was losing staff, on 1 October a shutdown of the federal government began, lasting for over a month, the most protracted in US history.

The couple marked their 18th wedding anniversary in the fall, during the ongoing closure, but stayed at home because finances prevented them to go out to eat due to her husband going without a paycheck for several weeks.

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

"I felt hopeless. I felt destitute. I was astonished, frightened, and I observed my husband and on several occasions where he was sitting at his desk and he gazed out the window. He was becoming despondent," she recounted.

Feeling Targeted

"We’re just one drop in a ocean of countless people who strive diligently to get where they are, who try to do the right thing, and the people who are setting policy are just ransacking and leading the government and viewing federal workers like they are enemies, that they are not citizens, and that they should be attacked. I find this personally offensive to that," she expressed.

A Looming Threat

She is now worried is another possible looming government shutdown in late January, with the bulk of federal funds set to expire again absent a permanent agreement.

"The continuing resolution is up for renewal again at the end of January and I fear this is going to happen once more. We’ve been through multiple closures. This was decidedly the worst," she said. "I am already fighting a serious disease, and I don’t know where it’s going to take me. I may survive for another year or two. I might live for 10 years."