Sweet friendship between toddler and WWII vet ends with veteran’s death

Last year, 4-year-old Emmett Rychner gave his best friend a set of dog tags for his birthday.

One read, “Emmett and Erling.”

The other read, “Friends Forever.”

It was Erling Kindem’s 90th birthday.

Emmett’s parents, Bryan and Anika Rychner, moved next door to the World War II veteran in Farmington, Minn., several years before Emmett was born.

They had little interaction with the elderly man who flew combat missions in Europe until their 3-year-old son, Emmett, became enamored with the tomatoes growing in Kindem’s yard.

“Every time he saw me out there, he’d come running over,” Kindem told KARE 11 in Minneapolis in the summer of 2014.

The little boy would ask: “Erling, got any ’matoes?”

A friendship between the young boy and old man quickly blossomed, catching the attention of neighbors and friends, the media and the internet, where they became famous.

Play dates began with Emmett walking to his neighbor’s house, knocking on the door and saying, “Can Erling come out and play?”

Photos of the two of them having fun together made people smile.

There they were racing their respective John Deere mowers, riding side-by-side on bicycle and tricycle, and playing croquet with the set Kindem surprised his little buddy with one day after the toddler’s naptime.

Even snow didn’t stop these two. One winter Kindem used his snow blower to clear a path directly from his backdoor to Emmett’s backdoor so they could visit.

“His patience is unbelievable,” Emmett’s dad, Bryan Rychner, told KARE two years ago. “He sees Emmett outside playing, he’ll find a reason to go outside.”

But the daily visits ended when Emmett and his family moved away to a nearby town and a bigger house, and Kindem moved into a retirement home.

People magazine caught up with them last year during one of Emmett’s visits to the retirement home, on Kindem’s birthday in March.

“You come back again,” he told the little boy as he left.

They had more visits. The last came a few days ago when Emmett, now 6, read “The Lord’s Prayer” to his old friend, who had been in hospice care for five months, family members told ABC News.

“You’re a good boy,” Kindem told Emmett, hugging him one last time before he left.

Kindem died two days later on Saturday.

His heart wore out.

This story was originally published November 2, 2016 at 1:15 PM with the headline "Sweet friendship between toddler and WWII vet ends with veteran’s death."