"Erling, Got Any 'Matoes?"

The way Erling Kindem told it, the tomatoes brought them together. “Every time he saw me out there, he would come running over,” Kindem, a World War II veteran, told KARE, an NBC affiliate in Minneapolis. ” ‘Erling, got any ‘matoes?’ ”

He is speaking of his dear friend and young next-door neighbor, Emmett Rychner, in Farmington, Minn. Although Rychner was just a boy and Kindem an elderly man, the pair grew close, and their friendship was featured on the local news. “They kind of bonded over the tomatoes in his garden,” Emmett’s mother, Anika Rychner, told KARE. “Because Emmett loves tomatoes...”

...“Emmett was the only kid on the block. There wasn’t any other kids, so he would come over and knock on Dad’s door,” Erling’s adult son, Charlie Kindem, told ABC News. “And he would say, ‘Can Erling come out and play?’ ”

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