This story comes from NPR’s Next Generation Radio project:
Haley Hager describes herself as a voyager.
As a political campaign worker, the 33-year-old has lived in nine different places due to her work, including Ocean Township, New Jersey, Washington, D.C., and Lubbock, Texas.
“I lived in Fort Worth, Texas. Then I moved to Los Angeles. From Los Angeles I went to Cedar Rapids, Iowa,” said Hager.
Although she has called several of these places home, her childhood home, nestled in a cul-de-sac in Frisco, Texas, is where she’s been able to grieve, recharge and ground herself.
Now is no different, she’s needing some downtime for recovery.
She had laparoscopic surgery in August 2023, a procedure that explored endometriosis and fibroid removal. The invasive procedure left her with an adenomyosis diagnosis, a condition that causes the uterine lining to grow into a person’s uterus. While the condition is not life threatening and sometimes disappears after menopause, it is life changing. It has brought her home once again to heal and recover before she prepares for her next move.
“When I come back to my childhood house, it’s a trip. A lot happened in these four walls,” Hagar said. “When my mom passed away, this was actually the first place that I could finally grieve.”
Hager’s mom died in 2019. She had a significant influence on her life and her work.
Three years before she died, Hager received a phone call from her mom while working a congressional primary in Iowa.
Hager’s mom had been diagnosed with a rare disease: Cushing’s syndrome.
“I was like, ‘Okay, Mom, do you want me to come home? I’m happy to come home,” Hagar recalls telling her mom.
But her mom refused.
