Viral Grandma and Jamal Hinton Spend Thanksgiving Aside for First Time in 9 Years Amid Breast Most cancers Prognosis

The previous strangers, who met eight years in the past in a mistaken textual content message trade, reunited to for Turkey Day — and issues seemed just a little completely different this yr.

Dench joined Hinton and his household on Instagram Reside as a substitute, amid her continued battle with breast most cancers.

The Thanksgiving celebration comes only one month after Dench revealed in a message shared to Hinton’s Instagram and social media pages that she had been identified with breast most cancers.

Whereas reflecting on their sudden friendship and the way it has positively formed their lives, Dench shared {that a} CT scan for bronchitis uncovered a mass in her breast, resulting in a prognosis of breast most cancers after additional testing.

Dench additionally shared her shock over the prognosis, noting that most cancers does not run in her household and her earlier mammograms had been at all times clear.

“In 2022 I turned 65 years previous and I believed I’d have my final mammogram and never have to consider it once more. However I used to be flawed,” she wrote within the message shared to Hinton’s socials.

Whereas the prognosis initially shocked her, Dench stated she’s been related with “great folks” all through her therapy. She additionally urged others to make common checkups a precedence, and to cherish life.

“I’ve discovered numerous life’s classes by way of all of it, however what I need to stress most of all is simply because you could be older, we nonetheless have a life to dwell,” she wrote within the Oct. 16 publish. “So proceed getting your checkups, and proceed to dwell YOUR life!”

Hinton teased the reunion in a publish Monday, sharing a collage of pictures of him and Dench through the years, writing within the caption, “Excited to announce that I am internet hosting Thanksgiving this yr for Wanda and I! 🦃✨ Trying ahead to a day full of good meals, nice firm, and lasting reminiscences. Yr 9 coming quickly!🖤”

The pair’s unanticipated friendship started in 2016, after Hinton acquired a Thanksgiving textual content from Dench meant for her household. After confirming the error, Hinton lightheartedly requested if he may nonetheless be part of Dench for dinner, to which Dench replied, “In fact you’ll be able to. That is what grandmas do … feed everybody.”

Hinton and Dench rapidly turned mates and their story subsequently went viral, with the pair spending each Thanksgiving collectively since.

They’ve additionally weathered some hardships alongside the way in which, together with the dying of Dench’s husband, Lonnie in 2020, who died after struggling issues from COVID-19.

In 2021, Netflix introduced it might make a movie, The Thanksgiving Textual content, about their distinctive bond.

Although the movie has but to drop, the streamer says the film will spotlight their deep friendship, regardless of their variations, and their unlikely connection, all due to the textual content mix-up.

“We hope it evokes extra folks to achieve out and make connections that they would not ordinarily make,” Hinton and Dench stated in an announcement shared by Netflix on the time. “We’re so blessed to discover a real friendship introduced collectively by God from a mistaken textual content message.”