Being family doesn’t always mean being bonded by blood and genes. Sometimes, strangers can turn into good friends.
Back in 2016, a woman named Wanda Dench sent a text message to her grandson asking him to come over for Thanksgiving dinner.
Little did Wanda know that she texted the wrong number. Instead of her grandson, she actually texted Jamal Hinton who was 16 years old at that time.
Jamal wanted to be clear about who invited him for dinner so he asked if the woman could send him a photo. Wanda sent a picture of her right away.
“You not my grandma,” Jamal texted back.
He added an emoji to show his amusement at what’s happening. However, instead of fully declining the invitation because of the mix-up, Jamal asked if he can still have a plate at grandma’s dinner table. Wanda was so kind as to say yes.
“Of course you can. That’s what grandma’s do…feed everyone.”- Wanda replied.
Jamal revealed that he actually felt weird about getting invited to a Thanksgiving dinner by a stranger. However, after meeting Wanda ahead of the holiday meal, he decided to go ahead and formally accept the invitation.
“What made me want to go was that I went and actually met her and she was pretty nice. So I decided that I’d just go and enjoy the time with her. It turned out to be a great thing.”- Jamal shared.
Wanda is a pretty good cook and Jamal thinks she’s a really good person to hang out with. Among Wanda’s recipes for Thanksgiving, he finds her green bean casserole and Thanksgiving turkey the best.
Since then, Jamal has always been a part of Wanda’s yearly Thanksgiving dinner.
Last year, he even brought his girlfriend and he did the same thing this year. The duo has no plans of breaking their yearly tradition.
What’s nice about the friendship Jamal and Wanda was able to build is the fact that they do enjoy catching up on each other’s lives. They spend the holiday just sitting at the table and telling stories about how they’ve been.
They don’t usually watch TV during the special day but this year, Jamal brought the Monopoly board game that Wanda gave him as a gift last year. It was the perfect game to play after dinner.
Next year, he plans on hosting Thanksgiving.
It was actually his plan to do it this year but he and his girlfriend are moving to a new place just before the holiday. Since moving is chaotic, he doesn’t think he’ll be able to have people in their new place for Thanksgiving.
Despite not being able to push through with that plan, Jamal and Wanda clearly had a blast this Thanksgiving together with their families. And as part of the yearly tradition, he shared pictures of the 4 years they spent Thanksgiving together. It was such a heartwarming story.
Jamal and Wanda met by accident but the kind of friendship they now share is something truly inspiring. This is one example of how strangers can be really good friends.
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
