Update (April 9, 2020):  A week after sharing that the grandparents he has spent four Thanksgiving dinners with were battling the novel coronavirus, Jamal Hinton announced that Lonnie Dench has died of COVID-19. 

Grandmother Wanda Dench intended to send her grandson a Thanksgiving invite in 2016 when she accidentally texted Hinton instead. Since then, he and the two grandparents have spent the holiday together every year. 

On April 2, Hinton said Wanda and her husband, Lonnie, both contracted the coronavirus. On Thursday, he told his Twitter followers that Lonnie did not make it. Lonnie had been hospitalized while battling both the virus and pneumonia. 

Original story (April 3, 2020): The Black teen who was accidentally invited to spend Thanksgiving dinner with Wanda Dench posted on Twitter that she and her husband are battling the coronavirus.

Jamal Hinton shared two pictures of himself alongside Wanda and Lonnie Dench on Twitter, asking for people to uplift them with positivity.

"I am so sad to announce that Wanda and Lonnie both have COVID-19 and that Lonnie is currently in the hospital fighting both COVID and Pneumonia please send words of love and encouragement their way," he wrote on Wednesday.

Despite sharing that Lonnie is in the hospital, Hinton didn't give an update on Wanda's condition.

The two created a special bond back in 2016 when Wanda mistakenly reached out to Hinton inviting him to Thanksgiving dinner in hopes of reaching her grandson, as Blavity previously reported.

After receiving the text message, Hinton replied and asked for a photo to confirm the identity of the woman who he knew couldn't have been his biological grandmother.

Time reported that Hinton assumed it wasn't his grandmother reaching out to him because she wasn't text savvy. 

“[You’re] not my grandma,” the high school senior at the time replied.

Despite the mix-up, Wanda welcomed Hinton into her home with open arms that year. The two have grown closer and have not missed a Thanksgiving dinner together since.

In 2019, switching up their tradition, the two former strangers spent the holiday with the family of Hinton's girlfriend. Every year, they have posted a picture together.

"When you meet someone new take all the labels off & get to know what makes a person truly tick, it's amazing," Wanda tweeted, sharing her gratitude for creating a relationship with Hinton. "I am grateful for the friendship with Jamal and Mikaela. My husband and I enjoy the talks and laughter we share over good food. The 40 year gap in age doesn’t matter."

Back in 2018, Hinton created a documentary of their time together, giving fans a glimpse into their holiday together.

In the documentary, Wanda said her father and husband were both in the military, so meeting new people was always a joy.

“We moved around a lot so I was always going to new places. And strangers were not strangers to me,” she said. “Family is more than blood. It’s the people you want to be with.”

coronavirusJamal HintonLonnie-DenchWanda Dench