A heartwarming viral story — about the grandma who mistakenly texted a young man about coming to Thanksgiving dinner, and then he did for years — has a sad addendum … her husband is dead from coronavirus complications.
Wanda Dench is the grandma who, back in 2016, accidentally texted teenager Jamal Hinton instead of her grandson about coming over for turkey. The funny gaffe blew up on Twitter and resulted in Wanda and Jamal’s families actually celebrating the holiday together that year and the 3 following Thanksgivings.
Wanda’s husband, Lonnie, was obviously a huge part of the new wonderful tradition. According to KTVK in Arizona … he always said grace at the couple’s home before they dined with Jamal and his girlfriend Mikaela and their families. He was also the first to greet everyone and the last to say goodbye.
Sadly, Lonnie contracted COVID-19 in recent weeks … and the virus took his life.
Wanda says of her late husband, “He had the truest heart of love, like no other. He did so many acts of kindness that no one ever heard about. He was my hero. And I’m a better person because of him.”
Lonnie was reportedly delivering water to grocery stores at night in March, but it’s unclear if that’s how he contracted the coronavirus.
RIP, Lonnie.