'Wrong Number Crew' Had a Different Sort of Thanksgiving

The Arizona grandmother and the once-teen, now-25-year-old she accidentally invited to Thanksgiving dinner back in 2016, leading to years of feel-good stories about the holiday meals they shared, had to spend Thanksgiving apart this year. Wanda Dench, now 67, was recently diagnosed with breast cancer, she told CNN Thursday. "I just recently finished up with chemotherapy, so I'm not 100% yet," she said. "And I live about two hours away from where Jamal [Hinton] lives. And so we decided that this year would be best for my health if I stayed at home." Originally, Hinton planned to host Dench at his aunt's Phoenix home, AZCentral reports.

"We will FaceTime with each other," Dench added to CNN. "I was looking so forward to meeting his family and having turkey with everybody, but we have to accept things the way they are, and I'm sure next year is going to be so much better." Last year, the crew partnered with Airbnb to allow a new stranger to join their meal, and Hinton posted a picture to social media after the successful meal, Mashable reported at the time. The two have also partnered on a mineral water company, and Netflix is planning a film about their unlikely friendship, the New York Post reports. (More Thanksgiving stories.)