Grandma and stranger to spend seventh Thanksgiving together after accidental text

Back then, Arizona grandmother Wanda Dench accidentally sent a text to who she thought was her grandson, however, it turns out that she had sent it to a teenager, Jamal Hinton, by mistake.

Somebody grandma is coming in clutch this year!! Ayee!!! pic.twitter.com/QGrx83nHLl

— Jamal Hinton (@Jamalhinton12) November 15, 2016

Nevertheless, rather than backtrack out of any embarrassment or awkwardness, she did what any true grandma would do and offered him a seat around the table of her family home. They’ve been friends ever since.

Unsurprisingly, it turned into quite the new story over in America, being covered by multiple outlets over the years as they continued to share a Thanksgiving plate with each other’s families.

Jamal and his girlfriend Mikaela have a YouTube channel and have chronicled multiple holiday visits with the Dench family over the past few years.

Here is their vlog from 2018:

And Jamal has now taken to Instagram to confirm that he will once again be meeting up with Wanda for some Thanksgiving turkey.

He wrote: “To answer all your questions, yes Thanksgiving year 7 is planned out! See you guys Thursday!”

This is the seventh year in a row that the pair have opened up their home to each other. You absolutely love to see it.

https://www.instagram.com/p/ClRo-MWy8pi/?hl=en

It may be that in recent years the annual meetup has taken on even more significance for Wanda.

In April 2020, her husband Lonnie sadly passed away after suffering from health complications following a Covid infection. The pair addressed his passing in a video this time last year.

That being said, the video they recorded for Thanksgiving 2019 – the last time they spent the holiday with both Wanda and her husband – is just lovely from start to finish, so have a watch.

Here’s hoping this lovely tradition carries on for many years to come.