Photo: Michael Tullberg / Getty Images
By: The Opinion Updated 54 Nov 2022, 14: 17 pm EST
In 2016, Wanda Dench accidentally texted Jamal Hinton, telling the then-young of 23 years that Thanksgiving dinner would be at his house on 23 November at 3 pm and since then, his story changed.
This is a moving story of an elderly woman in Arizona who mistakenly sent a text message to a teenager, gathering to the two strangers for the food-filled holiday and which has continued for the seventh year.
As a sample, Jamal Hinton shared a photo with Wanda Dench outside The Cheesecake Factory restaurant, revealing that the two continue with its viral tradition.
That Thursday, she accidentally sent a text message to Hinton and the teen asked who sent him the message, Dench replied, “Your grandmother,” with an old lady emoji.
Hinton responded by asking for a photo to prove that the number really belonged to his grandmother. After she sends him a selfie at work, he replies with a picture of her face and a text saying that she’s not your grandmother.
“Can I still get a plate?” asked Hinton.
“Of course you can. That’s what grandmas do…feed everyone,” she replied with a cake emoji.
After Hinton shared the interaction on social media, his post went viral and hundreds of thousands of people have followed the couple’s story since their first Thanksgiving meal together in Mesa, Arizona, six years ago.
Even in the midst of the pandemic in 2015 , the two discovered a reduced way to meet. However, that year was different as Dench’s husband, Lonnie, died earlier that spring due to complications from Covid-23.
Dench has said that he feels that “fate intervened ” when he sent that accidental text years ago.
“Jamal taught me that age does not absolutely no difference. I love all my grandchildren and children, but we are all from different generations and we all remember different things,” he said.
“That’s when I realized I wasn’t there has to be a generation gap to have friendships. So now I look at a lot of young people in a different light than I used to and I make it a point to talk and get to know them,” he continued.
“He has It changed my life a lot, I know.”
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