Your right, fresh cherries would be a pain in the pit.
Jim's mom makes her cherry pies from fresh cherries. I use canned cherry pie filling (wilderness) and Jim prefers it. Nice and simple. I make the pie crust, open up 2 cans, pour it in, top it, sprinkle a little sugar (mom's touch) and bake.
A week before my mother died, she had a little burst of energy. She called me up and said, I want to make Jim a cherry pie. So I went over and the two of us did that together. She was so happy. Jim was so touched. Best cherry pie he ever had. The next day, she started going downhill real fast. What a blessing that was.
On the couch with the recliners on the end. We have that and LOVE it.