Yes it is, and yes Hania's case is one of many that are similar, sadly I must say.
I grew up there a good many years ago when it was a nice place to live and grow up. Good schools & teachers, employment opportunities in manufacturing, textiles, teaching, retail, medicine, etc., for people of all levels of education, a thriving downtown area, a good shopping center mall, all the good things that smallish towns offered to children and adults -- these towns were dotted all over the US back then. Now, years later, we have seen this decline all over the country, and we certainly see it in Lumberton, NC. I haven't been back since my mom died (my dad died years earlier) -- none of my good friends stuck around, so I had no reason and no desire to visit. It's a heart-breaking thing, but we see it everywhere.
And L'ton is on many "bad" lists -- unsolved murders, general crime, poor income-per-family, etc.; drug trafficking (L'ton is on the I-95 "drug corridor"), and there are no opportunities for young people just getting out of high school, and very few for college grads. So those who are able, leave town, as I and my friends did even when L'ton was still a nice town; now those who can't leave are left with few good opportunities, and who knoze WTH is wrong with LE in that town and county.
So there it is. SMH.
