The Bing cherry tree had been in Ann Aarhus’ side yard as long as she has been there. Longer, even. Before her house was built in 1925.

At least 100 years old, the tree was the last standing from the orchards that once covered her downtown Renton neighborhood, on North Third Street near Renton High School’s stadium.

Aarhus’ kids grew up playing in the tree’s many branches, and its leaves provided “wonderful shade for our yard,” Aarhus says.

“Now we won’t have that,” she adds.

She and her husband also won’t have the cherries.

“It was a really good crop this year,” she says.

So good it was hard to get to the Bings before the birds.

Thirty-some years with the tree, and then gone. A branch fell off a month ago, revealing a bug infestation. The tree was cut down last Thursday.

“It makes you pretty sad, being as old as it was,” Aarhus says.