It's a mixed thing. It provided fabulous shade for naturally-lighted photos in the back yard in summer, and was big enough to be a dependable backstop when loading or unloading firearms (a round will go through an exterior wall, but not five feet of hackberry trunk beyond it.)
On the other hand, it had been shedding limbs for a while and was on borrowed time. A truly ginormous tree, it had an ugly dead center and a vertical fissure right up the center of the main trunk. If it had come down on the house, that would have been catastrophic.
.
