Teen reunites with a grandma who accidentally invited him for Thanksgiving

OCTOBER 27, 2022

Jamal Hinton
Image: Twitter/@kingjamal08
Jamal Hinton
Image: Twitter/@kingjamal08

Jamal Hinton of Arizona, United States recently spent Thanksgiving with Wanda Dench, the grandmother who accidentally sent him a message inviting him for the said holiday two years ago.

Hinton, 19, took to his Twitter account last Nov. 22 where he shared pictures of him and Dench, now 61, spending Thanksgiving together for the third time in a row.

How the two met and became friends can be traced back to 2016. Hinton, then 17 years old, was sitting in class when he received a message from a stranger inviting him over for Thanksgiving dinner.

Hinton shared their exchange on Twitter, where he showed screenshots of the message he received from Dench.

“Thanksgiving dinner is at my house on Nov. 24 at 3:00pm. Let me know if you’re coming,” Dench said then. “Hope to see you all. Of course that includes Amanda & Justin.”

Hinton, at that time, replied, asking who those people were. When Dench replied that she was his grandma, he was skeptical and asked for her picture.

“You not my grandma,” Hinton replied, sending back a picture of him in class. “Can I still get a plate tho?”

“Of course you can,” Dench wrote back. “That’s what grandma’s do… feed every one.”

The rest is history, and the two have since spent the next two Thanksgivings together along with Dench’s family. Hinton also shared a video on YouTube last Nov. 23, showing him and his girlfriend arriving at Dench’s home for their third Thanksgiving with them.

Dench greeted the two at the front door, before welcoming them in where they were greeted by Dench’s husband and dogs. Framed pictures of Hinton and his girlfriend with Dench and her husband can be seen displayed inside the house.

In Hinton’s video, Dench can be heard sharing why it was easy for her to invite Hinton to Thanksgiving anyway despite him being a stranger.

“I grew up in the military, my dad was in the Navy and my husband … was in the Army and we moved around a lot so I was always going to new places,” she said. “And so strangers were not strangers to me. For us to open our door to strangers, it was normal for us.”

And when asked if she considers Hinton part of her family, Dench said yes with no hesitation.

“Family is more than blood,” she explained. “It’s the people that you wanna be with and that you just feel good with.”

The video of Dench and Hinton’s third Thanksgiving together may be viewed below.

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