My phone rang at about 6:30 in the morning. It was my uncle. I was at the Omni Hotel in Atlanta, getting ready for the biggest weekend of my year: the Celebration Bowl. Source Getty He told me there was a house fire, and that my mom had passed away. He didn’t have a lot of details and explained that my dad was alive — but that he’d been burned. Someone had pulled him out. He told me that my mom had gotten out but had gone back in and had been trapped inside.