Twenty years after their first phone call, Mike from Rhode Island and Gladys from Florida finally met in person.
Mike Moffitt told The Providence Journal that two decades ago, he started receiving phone calls from an elderly woman who was trying to reach a relative in Maryland. She accidentally dialed area code 401 instead of 410, connecting her with Moffitt. After several calls, Moffitt said he asked her name, "and we started hitting it off."
Every few months, Moffitt and Gladys Hankerson chat on the phone for a few minutes, catching up on what their families are up to. "It kind of brightens your day," Moffitt said. When Hankerson's husband died, she told her son to notify Moffitt, who sent flowers. This Thanksgiving, Moffitt knew he would be celebrating in Florida, about 45 minutes away from Hankerson's house. He decided it was time to meet face-to-face, and last Wednesday, showed up at her house with a bouquet.
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"I just said, 'Hey, I'm Mike from Rhode Island,'" he told the Journal. "Her eyes lit up." Upon seeing Moffitt, Hankerson said, "I'm blessed," and she introduced him to her family. Moffitt is looking forward to strengthening their unconventional friendship, and wrote on Facebook that he's learned there are "incredible people in this world that are a wrong number phone call away."
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