In 2016, Wanda Dench accidentally invited teenager Jamal Hinton over for Thanksgiving. He ended up accepting the invitation, and four years later the pair are still keeping up the tradition.
Everyone’s accidentally texted/called someone at some point – it’s a faux pas that comes hand in hand with mobile phones, usually brushed off with a brief apology.
However, for these two friends, one text to a wrong number gifted them with an adorable holiday tradition.
Check out the news report below:
It all started four years ago when Wanda, now 62, sent a message out to her grandson to invite him over for a good ol’ Thanksgiving sit-down.
However, that message was received by Jamal, a high school senior at the time. Initially confused by the text, he asked for the person to send a photo of themselves to confirm it was his grandma. When Wanda replied, the pair realised the error.
‘You’re not my grandma,’ he replied with a laughing emoji, adding: ‘Can I still get a plate though?’ In a moment that secured their friendship, Wanda replied: ‘Of course you can. That’s what grandmas do … feed everyone.’
Jamal’s initial tweet of the exchange went viral, as people rallied round to share the tale of goodwill – currently, it’s sitting on more than 128,000 likes and 43,000 retweets. Each year they meet, the numbers keep rising.
Jamal, of Phoenix, Arizona, is now 20 years old, but nothing has got in the way of his seasonal dinners with Wanda. Each year since 2016, he’s posted a picture on Twitter of them together – does it get more wholesome than this?
Tommorow on Thankgsiving, November 28, they will meet once again, sitting down together at Jamal’s girlfriend Mikaela’s Aunt Tauna’s house.
Commenting on their tradition, Jamal told Good Morning America: ‘[Wanda] is a really good person, I really enjoy the time I spend with her.’
Last year, the 20-year-old posted a video to YouTube documenting their dinner together. In it, we learn Wanda has constantly been around the military, from her dad in the Navy to her husband in the Army.
Wanda said:
We moved around a lot so I was always going to new places. And so strangers were not strangers to me. Family is more than blood. It’s the people you want to be with.
Enjoy dinner you two, we’ll see you both next year.
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After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.