I bought an urn for $30 to put my dad’s ashes in, but had to remove the original inhabitant first

‘I looked online for proper urns but they were hundreds of dollars. Imagine my delight when I found one at a junk shop.’ Photograph: LightFieldStudios/Getty Images/iStockphoto

I bought a brass urn for my dad’s ashes eight years after he died.

It was secondhand and a bargain at 30 bucks. As I went to leave the shop and picked it up off the counter it was heavier than anticipated. There was someone still in there.