In early May 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 couldn’t get back up.
Her husband called an ambulance and she was admitted in a hospital, where, in her late fifties, she found out she had a tumor on her spine. The diagnosis was metastatic breast cancer.
"I had no warning this would occur, and I was devastated. Initially, I wasn't fully aware that it was part of my breast cancer which had spread to my spine, which I learned is common for it to go," she explained.
"If I were to die prematurely, I could not imagine leaving [my husband] here. We really don’t have little family. We don’t have any children."
Following the victory in the 2024 election, her spouse braced to be mandated back into the office at the DOT in Washington DC. He had worked remotely since the beginning of the global pandemic, from their home outside Baltimore.
On Trump’s first day in office in January, he issued demanding all federal agencies end all remote work arrangements. Federal personnel officials instructed agencies to implement the policy irrespective of existing union agreements.
"My spouse is a long-time employee in government service, and he’s an expert in his field. He’s been doing this for 20 years now, so it is draining for him. We’re in our 50s. He was leaving the house at five o’clock in the morning and getting home at 7 p.m. at night," she stated. Her identity is protected as her husband still works at the agency and is concerned about retaliation.
During the summer, she underwent an operation, a laminectomy. Shortly following that, she had targeted radiation therapy, and is now taking an cancer treatment called Kisqali and hormone therapy.
She had stage one breast cancer in 2014, but successfully treated it, due to early detection, with a surgical procedure, radiation, chemotherapy and hormonal medication. With consistent monitoring, she managed her health, before her recent diagnosis of advanced metastatic breast cancer.
Throughout this year, her spouse avoided layoffs at the Department of Transportation. By May, nearly 2,800 employees had left the agency, due to the cuts as well as retirements and voluntary resignations.
According to a memo on its plan for reductions in force and reorganization, the agency estimated that by the end of next year, its workforce would be cut by approximately 20 percent from levels at the start of the year.
This translates to over ten thousand fewer employees at the department. Government workforce reductions have surpassed targets, with a significant number of workers leaving the federal government and only a fraction of replacements.
"We were concerned about layoffs. It is clear based on the way this administration functions, that this is always on the table because they ignore the law," she elaborated.
She added that specialized positions at the agency are hard to come by and contractors often want to pay reduced wages.
While the DOT was losing staff, on 1 October a shutdown of the U.S. government began, continuing for 43 days, the longest in US history.
The couple celebrated their 18th anniversary in the fall, while the shutdown continued, but remained home because finances prevented them to dine out due to her husband going without a paycheck for several weeks.
She is relieved the government shutdown ended as she was anxious over healthcare costs, but laments the rising costs in healthcare 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 there were a few times where he sat at his desk and he was just staring out the window. He was getting depressed," she said.
"We’re just one drop in a ocean of millions people who work so hard to get where they are, who try to do the right thing, and those who are making all the decisions are seemingly dismantling and managing the government and treating government employees like they are enemies, that they are lesser citizens, and that they deserve targeting. And I take personal offense to that," she expressed.
She is now worried is a potential approaching government shutdown on 30 January 2026, with the vast majority of federal funds set to lapse again without a long-term deal.
"The temporary funding measure comes up for a vote again on the 30th of January and I am thinking this is going to happen once more. We’ve been through multiple closures. This by far was the worst," she said. "I’m already battling a serious disease, and I am uncertain where it’s going to take me. I may survive for a couple more years. I might live for a decade."
A geospatial analyst with over a decade of experience in terrain modeling and environmental data visualization.
