With all the discord and divisiveness in the world, the holiday season can provide the perfect stage to bring us all together – the story of Jamal Hinton and Wanda Dench is the perfect example of this.

For those who don’t remember, in 2016, Hinton (17-years-old at the time) received an accidental text from Dench inviting him to a family Thanksgiving dinner.

Here’s Justin, the real grandson, and his girlfriend Amanda

And Jamal actually went to go grab that plate

Since the heartwarming story first broke Dench has named Hinton as her ‘honorary grandson,’ which is quite fitting. In an interview with the Arizona Republic last year Dench said, ‘It was really nice having everybody here, we got to laugh about last year and reminisce about how it all blew up on our phone and how I had to change my number. We had a laugh and a good time.” Hinton found the dinner meaningful as well. “The world is becoming a better place than it used to be,’ he said in 2017, “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,’ he said at the time.” Dench gave her new ‘grandson’ an open invitation for all future Thanksgivings at her house, so we foresee this tradition living on.

Three years later, Hinton and Dench are still breaking bread together. Hinton posted their annual picture together this year with the caption: “2016, 2017…… 2018,” adding that he promised to post a video he filmed with Dench and her husband on Friday.