Mesa, Arizona’s Wanda Dench invited Jamal Hinton of Phoenix to Thanksgiving dinner. It was a text message Hinton hadn’t expected. For one, he’s never met Dench. But Dench didn’t intend to send the message to Hinton but instead she thought she was sending it to her own grandson and his girlfriend. Well, Hinton showed up for dinner on Thursday, Nov. 24, 2016. It was an invitation he didn’t expect but he insisted on coming anyway because it was one that he needed.
Dench said the invitation remained open and made Hinton her “honorary grandson.”
A student, Hinton replied to the text to the grandmother asking, “Can I still get a plate tho?”
Dench replied almost immediately: ‘”Of course you can, that’s what grandmas do” and the invitation was officially accepted.
She said it was because “that’s what grandmas do….feed everyone.”
On Thursday, Hinton stayed true to his reservation, with Dench hugging him immediately as he walked up to her house.
“I’d never seen her before and She welcomed me into her home,” Hinton tells ABC15. “That shows me how great of a person she is, I’m thankful for people like that.
“With all the Donald Trump going on and all the racial comments going on, it’s kind of good to see there’s still good people out there.”
Dench also learned of the power of social media. When Hinton placed the screenshots of the conversation on Twitter, it received more than 200K engagements.
“This wasn’t me, it’s come from God above,” Dench said. “He’s just using us as his tools and vessels to bring a message to others.”
People have commented on this accidental friendship saying:
So touching and beautiful, just wish there were millions of other people with her heart, then this world would definitely be a better place to be on.
Great uplifting story. Well done
That was nice of he[a]rt here still beautiful people in America.
What a sweetheart. I love this story
