For a decade, the Rychner family of Farmington, Minnesota had little interaction with the elderly man living next door. Once in a while they waved hello in passing.

But that changed last year when the family's 3-year-old son, Emmett, struck up an unlikely friendship with 89-year-old Erling Kindem over a shared love of tomatoes and lawn tractors.

"Every time he saw me out there he would come running over," laughs Erling, remembering those early visits from the boy next door who would ask, ‘Erling, got any ‘matoes?'"

They are together every day now it seems, exploring bugs, playing croquet, and even riding bikes.

Watch the beautiful story told by one of our favorite storytellers, Boyd Huppert.

(WATCH the video below or READ the story from KARE-11 News)

Photo courtesy of Emmet's family