'I never imagined anything like this': Mom of UT basketball player grateful for support after fire
The blaze on Feb. 26 wiped out the belongings of Charmane Zeigler and her 4-year-old grandson. The public responded by pledging more than $360,000 thru GoFundMe.
After all the family has been through, it's as if God decided they'd endured enough and it was time for some help from the angels.
That's how Charmane Zeigler sees it, anyway.
The angels are all the people from Knoxville, East Tennessee and everywhere else who stepped up this month to help after a fire the night of Feb. 26 destroyed the New York home of Zeigler, the 4-year-old grandson Nori who she's raising, and her 19-year-old son, University of Tennessee freshman guard Zakai Zeigler.
The fire wiped out everything the Zeiglers had, including a custom-made wheelchair that her grandson, who has special needs, used. But it also set in motion a huge wave of love and support for the Zeiglers that takes Charmane's breath away. Still.
"It's hard, but I can't say enough about Knoxville because Knoxville has got us through the toughest time of...our...lives," she told WBIR's Robin Wilhoit, emphasizing each word with care. "And I don't know how to repay everybody. But I don't have a family, and the way that my family was embraced through this ... I never imagined anything like this."
This month, a GoFundMe set up by Zakai Zeigler with UT's blessing raised more than $360,000 to help the Zeiglers. Donors eclipsed the goal -- $50,000 -- within minutes after it was posted.
Now Charmane Zeigler, a native New Yorker, is working on creating a new life for herself and little Nori right here in Knoxville. She tells WBIR she's looking for a home where they can live as Zakai Zeigler pursues his dream of college and NBA basketball greatness.
"Why are you outside?"
Charmane Zeigler already suspected East Tennessee had something special. She liked the place and approved of it when she came to visit while her son was considering what college to attend. It was their last stop, she recalled.
Everyone she met was friendly. UT basketball players shared an obvious, close bond. The team coaches knew what they were doing, she thought, and they showed the same kind of belief in her boy that she had in him.
Knoxville felt like the kind of place to which she could entrust her only son while she stayed at home back in Rockaway Beach.
"Me and Zakai -- he is my golden child," said Zeigler, who also has two daughters. "Everybody knows he's my favorite. It's no secret. But he's everyone's favorite. He's his siblings' favorite. He's his nephew's favorite. He's his dad's favorite. He's everyone's favorite. Because he just has this spirit about him."
The family assumed the 5-foot, 9-inch Zakai would take freshman year to get adjusted to life at UT and on the team. Zeigler knew her "old soul" son was driven and hyper-focused -- he's always been that way -- but she soon learned he was ready to make an impression RIGHT NOW.
To her, he hit another gear once the team got to Connecticut for the Hall of Fame Tip-Off Tournament in November. From that point, he continued to excel, earning a spot as a valued member of the Vols.
The team had a great year, going 14-4 in the SEC, 27-8 overall, and winning the SEC Tournament in Tampa before losing days later in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in Indianapolis.
As Charmane watched from New York, her son just got better and better.
But on the night of Feb. 26, a two-alarm fire broke out in the Beach Street building where the Zeiglers lived. It destroyed their residence.
UT beat Auburn that Saturday night in Knoxville. Charmane didn't want to tell her son and two daughters what had happened. She didn't want to worry them.
But one of her daughters happened to call after the fire broke out. So Charmane told her what happened. Her daughter then called Zakai and said, Something's going on, you need to call Mom.
"Why are you outside?" he asked when he called her.
She couldn't make herself say the words. Instead, she turned the phone around so he could see for himself on her smartphone camera.
He was ready to come home immediately, to comfort her, she said. He kept apologizing to her that it had happened, that he was so far away and that he wasn't there for her.
She tears up when she recalls those early days after the fire.
"He apologized to me like every day. Every day he would call and say, 'Mom, I'm sorry, I'm sorry,'" she said. "I'd say, 'What are you sorry for?' and he'd say, 'I should be there, I'm supposed to be helping.' And I said, 'You are where you're supposed to be. You're where God needs you to be.'"
It's all gone
It's utterly disorienting when you lose everything. Not only did Charmane lose her home. Her clothes and personal belongings, precious mementos, and even Nori's medical equipment also burned up in the blaze.
The Zeiglers never had much, to begin with, she said. Now they had nothing but what they possessed outside their apartment.
It was days later that the idea of seeking help through GoFundMe arose.
Zeigler said she rejected the idea when her son first pitched it to her. Who would care enough to help them? she thought.
"Let's not ask," she recalled saying. "I feel like when you ask you put people in a box."
But the young man persisted, calling her back and telling her, "Mom, I'm doing it."
With the approval of UT Athletics, the GoFundMe page went up on March 2.
The page summary stated:
On Feb. 26, 2022, a fire destroyed the residence of Zakai Zeigler's family in Queens, New York. His mother, who is raising his special-needs 4-year-old nephew, lost all of her belongings, including his nephew's vital accessibility equipment (wheelchair, splints, etc).
Zakai is currently enrolled at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he is a freshman guard on the Volunteers basketball team. The East Tennessee community has embraced Zakai in such an impactful manner that his mother is exploring opportunities to relocate to Knoxville so that the family can spend more time together and Zakai can assist with Nori's care. In the short term, funds will be used to fill immediate needs such as temporary housing, clothing and airfare.
The goal of this GoFundMe effort is exclusively relief and recovery. The listed goal of $50,000 is an approximation, as the full scope of loss is difficult to quantify and still being assessed.
Contributions took off within minutes. Charmane Zeigler said she wasn't paying attention when the page was posted, but she soon started getting phone calls urging her to look at what was happening.
Tens of thousands of dollars poured in, from friends, Vol fans, strangers, members of the UT athletic family, Chancellor Donde Plowman, UT Athletic Director Danny White and many more.
Charmane was astonished.
"I just kept calling Zakai," she said. "I said, 'Zakai, what do you think? What do we do?' I was speechless, because like I said, we've been through a lot as a family. We've never been homeless as far as in a shelter, but we've been homeless as in not having a home of our own, having to stay with someone or not having to move and then do as we please."
By the time the page stopped taking donations, $363,000 had been raised.
Restoration is hard
Charmane Zeigler now is focused on starting a new life here in Knoxville. That itself is a challenge because she's having to get used to living in East Tennessee and she's trying to find more permanent housing. She still sometimes must make trips back to the New York area.
"I cried two days ago going into Walmart because I finally realized that, 'yeah, I need everything,'" she said. "And I don't even know where to start."
She's also working to get new equipment for Nori. For example, besides a new wheelchair, he needs a gait trainer, which helps him stand up and learn how to take steps. Before the fire, he was just starting to use it and experience the sensation of walking.
Restoration is hard, she said.
But Charmane believes everything happens for a reason. And now it's her time to live in East Tennessee. She said she trusts in God and believes he has a plan for her and her family.
And she counts herself grateful to have ended up in Tennessee. Knoxville gives her hope, she said.
"That will forever and ever and ever mean so much, not just to me and Zakai and to my daughters as well and my other grandchildren. When God says you will recover and I will restore all, I mean, he's something. But the people of Knoxville have been like angels," she said.
