The last conversation Jim Borden had with his mother was about stuffing. The 31-year-old East Atlanta resident had called her for some tips as he prepared to cook his first Thanksgiving meal, a pre-holiday feast for two.
"His kitchen was all set up and ready to go," said stepfather Karl Benton, of Bessemer, Ala.
After his wife left for work Saturday morning, Borden, 31, walked 2 1/2 blocks to a Citgo station at Moreland and McPherson avenues near I-20 for a cup of coffee and a newspaper, as he did most weekends.
The passionate Auburn University fan and gardening enthusiast never made it home.
According to an Atlanta police incident report, Borden was hit by a Nissan Maxima after it collided with another vehicle turning into the gas station off Moreland.
Traffic citations were issued, but neither driver has been charged in Borden's death. A police investigation is continuing, a police spokesman said.
The victim was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital around 10 a.m. and would be pronounced dead from massive brain trauma roughly 12 hours later.
In the meantime, his family, unaware there had been an accident, searched feverishly to locate the man, a quest that seemed alternately hopeless and, in a particularly cruel final twist, hopeful.
"We called the police, 911 and every hospital in the area," said Benton, who drove Borden's mother Diane to Atlanta late Saturday afternoon. "They asked for him by name, they asked for any John Doe who might be there. Nothing."
Borden's family would later discover that he had both his driver's license and health insurance card in his wallet at the time of the accident. Grady spokeswoman Denise Simpson, while unaware of the particulars of Borden's case, said it is standard procedure to assign patients in "extreme cases" a numerical ID.
That likely explains why Grady operators told three of Borden's family members they had no patient named James McKinley Borden. "Sometimes it can take 12 hours for the system to catch up," said Simpson, acknowledging the process is not always seamless.
Borden's wife and mother wouldn't learn he was taken to Grady until a chance encounter with the Citgo manager who witnessed the accident.
"He tells Amy that Jimbo's been in an accident but he's okay," Benton told the AJC. It was an understandable assumption, as Borden's injuries were mostly internal.
"So finally we know what happened and where he was taken," Benton said.
But with Borden's name apparently still not in the hospital's computer system, it would be another agonizing couple of hours before the family learned his fate, Benton said. A hospital chaplain broke the news.
Though Borden never regained consciousness, Benton said the family is devastated knowing that he died alone.
"We could've been with Jimbo," he said. "We should've been there."
The family had planned to spend the Thanksgiving weekend together at his mother's home in Alabama. Instead, they'll be attending Borden's funeral, scheduled for Friday in Birmingham.
"Everything was going so good for him," said his father, Tim Borden, who added that his eldest son married Amy two years ago.
"I try to keep reminding myself how happy he was when he died," Borden said. "He finally knew exactly what he wanted to do with his life."
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