Courtesy Photo Owen Franzoni, left, smiles in this photo provided by his family as his grandmother, Mary Franzoni, plays with him during a recent visit. Mary has stage IV lung cancer that spread into her brain. Her daughter, Danni Franzoni, said having the grandchildren around lifts her mother emotionally during her battle with the disease.

ALPENA — Danni Franzoni’s life is a constant balancing act as she does her best to manage her life and family in Alpena while traveling back and forth to Royal Oak to provide support for her mother, who has stage IV lung cancer that has moved into her brain.

Franzoni, a single mother who recently got engaged, does all that while remaining sober as she continues her recovery from addiction.

Franzoni said doctors diagnosed her mother, Mary Franzoni, with cancer in February. Mary had emergency brain surgery the next day after doctors realized the disease had spread beyond her lungs.

Since then, Danni said, her life has been turned upside down, because she wasn’t sure how to care for her children at home while being there for her mother, who badly needed her.

“My whole life pretty much completely went to shambles, and I was in 100% shock,” she said. “I didn’t know what I was going to do, but, fortunately, there were many groups, organizations, and the Alpena Public Schools who helped me and my children so we could go down there as much as we do to see her.”

Because her mother was hospitalized and strict COVID-19 regulations were in place for health care facilities, for a spell, Danni wasn’t able to visit Mary in person. She said that, like many others, she depended on telephone calls and communicating with her mother from outdoors.

“She had the seizure and learned about the cancer on her birthday so we went and bought posterboards and decorated them and showed them through the window,” Danni said. “It was all so crazy, but, yet, it also felt united as one.”

After the brain surgery, Mary lost most of her body’s mobility.

Knowing her mother needed her, Danni had to work with the schools to make sure her children were excused from class or could work remotely. She said local charities also came through in the clutch by providing resources to help cover the expense of traveling downstate to be with her mom.

Without all of that help, she wouldn’t be able to be there for her sick mother as much as she is now, she said.

“There are so many people that stepped up and offered help and support, I wouldn’t be able to name them all,” she said. “Everyone was so supportive and giving. Without them, I wouldn’t have been able to do what I did.”

Danni said that, when her family visits, her children are the best medication for her mother. She said she notices an instant change in her mother’s spirit as she visits with her grandchildren, whom she helped raise before getting ill.

Danni is in long-term recovery for addiction, but she said that, as stressful and the situation was and still is today, she remains sober. She credits her support system and her mother for that.

“There really weren’t any times I thought about using,” she said. “Even being around my mom’s strong pain medicine, which is all right there with easy access. I figured everyone would expect it, but my primary focus was on my mom and helping her.”

Since her mother became ill, Danni said, she now takes steps to have herself examined and is taking better care of herself. She said others should do the same.

Danni knows the days she will be able to spend with her mother are dwindling as Mary’s condition worsens, but she isn’t sure if she is prepared for the inevitable.

“I have been telling myself every day since my mom got diagnosed that my mom is going to die,” she said. “The last time I saw her, she said, ‘Reality sucks, doesn’t it?’ I said, ‘Yeah. It really does.’ To watch someone you love slowly die is … I wouldn’t wish that on anybody.”