One man, one tree

Last spring I watched an elderly man, probably in his 80's, work on pruning his tree. His house is on a busy street in my neighborhood and his tree was at the sidewalk. He had a long-handled pruning saw and over a few days he sawed off several branches. He was doing all the work by himself and eventually he had it pruned the way he wanted it.

Yesterday I passed by him early in the morning when I was on my way to work.  All the branches of the tree had been removed. There was only the trunk, about 8 feet tall. The man was on his hands and knees, on the sidewalk, with a short-handled pruning saw. He had already cut through half of the tree trunk and was, from what I could tell in the few seconds of passing him, trying make sure it was leveraged correctly so it would fall down in the appropriate spot.  If he miscalulated, it could hit the front of the house and probably do some damage. 

I wanted to drive around the block and watch him. I wanted to help. It's a big job, taking out a tree trunk. What would he do with it after it fell?  He wasn't strong enough to carry it away all alone.  Would he have to saw it into pieces?  Would someone come and lend a hand?  Why was he cutting it down in the first place?  He's an old man, on his hands and knees, on the concrete at 7:15 in the morning, trying to move a tree.  It made me incredibly sad.

Today the tree is gone; there's just a little stump a few inches above dirt level.  The job got done. I still wished I had stopped.