As a child, Kevin Yates loved Batman.
He knew the hero never had special powers, but that’s what made him so appealing. Despite every obstacle, the Dark Knight always found a way to save the day.
Yates was mortally injured after a 37-year-old woman driving in the wrong lane on Highway 153 slammed head-on into his Chrysler minivan around 1:40 a.m. on July 31, 2011. He died 31 hours and 9 minutes later – his mother remembers. But in the next days, Yates would become a superhero, too.
“I was the most proud of Kevin,” his mother, Tiki Finlayson, said Wednesday, remembering when Kevin donated his heart and other organs and tissues to help save four lives. “It’s the best gift that you can give,” she said.
Nearly two-and-a-half years after his death, Yates will be remembered once more this time, in Pasadena, Calif., during the 127th Rose Bowl Parade on New Year’s Day.
Finlayson and Derek Yates, Kevin’s 32-year-old brother, will fly out after Christmas to watch while donors – and survivors – gather to commemorate the selfless acts of others.
It’s one of the family’s many engagements since founding 1N3, a nonprofit organization whose title refers to the statistic that one in three people is affected by drunken driving. That number has since increased, Finlayson said Tuesday, so the work is never done.
But on Wednesday, the mother and her surviving son took a minute to remember their lost family member, a comic book and video game fanatic whose smile and long, flowing locks earned him the nickname “Sunshine.”
Yates and Finlayson sat on the couch, just below a square of family portraits. In the upper left corner, a picture of Kevin Yates running his hand through his hair grinned back at them. The pictures were snapped July 11, 2011, Finlayson said.
A Tyner Academy graduate and former first-chair trumpet player in the high school band, Yates was living in Chattanooga and working at Buffalo Wild Wings off Highway 153 that summer. He was saving money, Finlayson said, because he wanted to open a video gaming cafe, a safe, affordable place for kids to play together. He had already gone to the bank and asked for a loan, and was in the process of returning to school to study business.
The night of the crash, Yates left work shortly after 1:30 a.m., Finlayson said.
Hours later, one of his best friends finished working third shift at the Highway 153 IHOP Restaurant and drove north on the highway. Along the way, he noticed a minivan that looked eerily similar to Kevin’s, the one the lanky 25-year-old picked out because it accomodated his 6-foot-5 frame and had plenty of room for his friends.
When he called Yates’ cellphone to check on him, an Erlanger nurse answered the phone. She told him what happened, Finlayson said. The friend called Derek Yates, who called Finlayson. She was already at the hospital because her father had been in a motorcycle accident earlier that week.
At his bedside, Finlayson talked to Yates, even though he was unresponsive. Maybe, she recalled saying, her son could tell Jesus that he wasn’t ready to stay in Heaven, that he needed to return to Earth and be with his family.
Besides, they were developing a great idea in the room, the nonprofit whose mission would bring awareness to people affected by drunken driving.
Yates never did come back that night. But, Finlayson said, he’s always around.
Just not in the way they expected.
Contact Zack Peterson at zpeterson at 423-757-6347 or zpeterson@timesfreepress.com with story ideas or tips. Follow @zackpeterson918.