Grandma and man she accidentally invited to Thanksgiving celebrate 6 years of awesome new tradition

In 2016, Wanda Dench in Mesa, Arizona, sent a text message to her grandson telling him what time Thanksgiving dinner would be at her house, but she accidentally sent it to the wrong number.

Jamal Hinton, who was 17 at the time was in Desert Vista High School when he received the message. After realizing it was a mistake during the course of the texting exchange, Hinton jokingly asked if he could still come for dinner.

Dench replied, "Of course you can. That's what grandmas do ... feed everyone!"

Hinton showed up with his girlfriend and posted screenshots of the exchange to social media and the story quickly went viral. According to CNN, the screenshots accidentally included Dench’s number and she received hundreds of messages of people inviting themselves over.

The Dench's have invited Hinton to Thanksgiving every year since. Hinton told the New York Post that he regularly texts Dench to stay in touch and that they have even gone on outings together including a pumpkin patch.

Last year during the pandemic, Wanda and Lonnie still continued the tradition during a socially-distanced gathering outside Dench's home. It was the first year that the meal was missing Dench’s husband Lonnie who passed away in April 2020.

Dench told CNN at the time "I can't even explain how much joy I had, having good food with my favorite company. We laughed, we had a great time, we reminisced about the past. It was so good for all of us."

On Sunday, Hinton tweeted that the tradition would continue for the sixth year this Thanksgiving.