Death of an old friend

This oak near our front door has suffered from canker  for a few years now. Its bark is peeling, and fungus is sprouting from its splotched skin. It is terminally ill. We had a few limbs amputated a couple of years ago, and yes, greenery has come back, but there are more dead spots. A good Oklahoma windstorm could cause real damage, and its death is, like all of us, only a matter of time.
So today, there is sadness here as the brutal sound of chainsaws begins to remove it. It will help the value of the house to remove this character, though were we out in the country, it would be allowed its full life cycle. 
Euthanasia is always painful, whether a pet or a tree, for the older I get, the more I value all life forms, also realizing we're all connected.
"No man is an island, entire of himself,"--John Donne