She Has Advanced Cancer. Her Husband Is a Government Employee. Will She Survive This Political Era?
During the spring of 2025, a woman felt a sharp pain shoot from her hip as she leaned down to water some plants. Then she fell over and couldn’t get back up.
Her husband called an ambulance and she was admitted in a hospital, where, in her late fifties, doctors discovered she had a tumor on her spine. It was metastatic breast cancer.
"I had no warning that that was going to happen, and I was devastated. At first, I wasn't fully aware that it was part of my breast cancer which had spread to my spine, a location was a common place for it to go," she explained.
"Should I pass away early, I cannot bear the thought of leaving [my husband] here. We have little family. We don’t have children of our own."
When Trump won the 2024 election, her spouse braced to be mandated to return to in-person work at the DOT in Washington DC. He had been teleworking since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, from their home outside Baltimore.
On Trump’s first day in office in January, he issued requiring all federal agencies terminate all telework arrangements. Federal personnel officials instructed agencies to implement the policy irrespective of existing union agreements.
"My spouse is a long-time employee with the administration, and he’s an expert in his field. He’s been doing this for two decades now, so it is draining for him. We’re in our 50s. He departed the house at five o’clock 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 reprisal.
During the summer, Michaela had surgery, a laminectomy. A few weeks after that, she had stereotactic radiation, and is currently on an cancer treatment called Kisqali and hormone therapy.
She had stage one breast cancer in 2014, but successfully treated it, as it was caught early, with a surgical procedure, radiation, chemotherapy and tamoxifen. With consistent monitoring, she stayed on top of it, prior to her recent diagnosis of advanced metastatic breast cancer.
Navigating Job Cuts and Restructuring
Over the past year, her spouse avoided layoffs at the DOT. By May, thousands of employees had departed the department, due to those reductions as well as retirements and voluntary resignations.
Per a memo on its plan for staff reductions and reorganization, the agency estimated that by the end of next year, its workforce would be reduced by one-fifth from earlier levels.
This would correlate to more than 10,000 reduced staff at the department. Government workforce reductions have surpassed targets, with hundreds of thousands of workers leaving the federal government and a small number of new hires.
"We were worried about RIFs. It is clear given the way things are operating, that this remains a constant threat because policies disregard established rules," she elaborated.
She noted that jobs for specializations at the agency are hard to come by and contractors often want to pay lower salaries.
Facing a Federal Closure
As the Department of Transportation was shedding employees, on October 1st a closure of the U.S. government began, lasting for 43 days, the longest in American history.
Michaela and her husband marked their 18th anniversary in early November, while the shutdown continued, but remained home because finances prevented them to dine out due to her husband not being paid for multiple weeks.
She is thankful the government shutdown concluded as she was worried about healthcare costs, but rues the rising costs in insurance premiums she and her husband have experienced, and for those who rely on insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace.
"I felt hopeless. I felt destitute. I felt flabbergasted, scared, and I watched my husband and there were a few times where he sat at his desk and he was just staring out the window. He was getting depressed," she recounted.
A Personal Offense
"We are merely one example in a bucket of countless people who strive diligently to achieve their positions, who attempt to do the right thing, and the people who are making all the decisions are seemingly dismantling and managing the government and treating federal workers like they are enemies, that they are lesser citizens, and that they should be attacked. And I take personal offense to that," she said.
A Looming Threat
She is now worried is a potential looming federal closure on 30 January 2026, with the vast majority of federal funds set to expire again absent a long-term deal.
"The temporary funding measure is up for renewal again at the end of January and I am thinking this will repeat once more. We’ve been through multiple closures. This was decidedly the worst," she stated. "I’m already battling a life-threatening illness, and I don’t know where it’s going to take me. I may survive for another year or two. I could be here for 10 years."
