Six years ago, a grandma in Arizona mistakenly invited a stranger to her Thanksgiving dinner. What started as an accidental text message, and quickly went viral on social media, has turned into a 6 year holiday tradition and lifelong friendship.

Now, Netflix is turning the feel-good story into a movie!

“The Thanksgiving Text” is the story of Wanda Dench and Jamal Hinton. Back in 2016, Wanda sent a text to what she thought was her grandson to see if he would be coming over for Thanksgiving. Turns out, Wanda wasn’t texting her grandson, she had the wrong number, she actually texted Jamal Hinton, a high school senior at the time.

When Jamal received the text, he asked who it was and Wanda responded, “Your grandma.”

After a selfie, Jamal told Wanda she was definitely not his grandma but jokingly asked if he could come anyway. Wanda didn’t hesitate. She said, “Of course you can. That’s what grandma’s do … Feed everyone.”

And thus, a cherished Thanksgiving ritual was born.

For 6 years Wanda and Jamal have continued their friendship, stayed in touch, and every Thanksgiving Jamal gets excited when Wanda sends him a text to give him details on what time he should come over for dinner.

I will definitely be following this story for more details on the upcoming movie on Netflix!

“We are excited to share our story with the world. We hope it inspires more people to reach out and make connections that they wouldn’t ordinarily make,” Wanda and Jamal said in a joint statement. “We are so blessed to find a genuine friendship brought together by God from a mistaken text message.”

12-3-21