It began in November 2016,when Hinton, then 17, got a text message from an 1 number inviting him to Thanks giving. When he asked who it was, the person responded:"Your grandma. "
"Grandma? Can I have your2 ?" the teenager replied. He received a photo of a woman he had never seen before. It was Dench，now 64.
Hinton wrote back,"You're not my grandma,"3 a laughing face. Still playing along, he jokingly asked:"Can I still get a4 though?"
Dench replied:"Of course you can. That's what grandmas do. Feed everyone. "Hinton soon realized her5 invitation had turned 6 , and he decided to take Dench up on her 7 . He went to her home in Mesa, Ariz. , about a 25-minute drive from his house south of Phoenix, for a Thanks giving meal with her family,including her actual grandson, whom she8 intended to text instead of Hinton.
Every year since then, the two friends and their families have gathered together for an annual Thanksgiving meal, and this year will be no9 ,despite the virus. Hinton, who shares regular10 on social media about his Internet-famous friendship with Dench,11 that the Thanksgiving tradition will 12 this year, as well.
Although Dench was13 about the misdirected text in 2016 at first, she said, both she and Hinton feel very14 that it happened. "Family is more than15 ," Dench said. "It's the people you want to be with. "
