Metro

Amityville woman horrified to find garbage in father’s ashes

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She was expecting ash — not trash.

A Long Island woman was horrified to find a bizarre bunch of garbage in her father’s ashes, including ballpoint-pen springs, glass shards, metal staples and a half-melted crucifix her dad didn’t even own.

“There was no explanation. My thought was, ‘Is this my dad? If this stuff isn’t him — then who is it?’ ” said daughter Jennie Spooner, from Amityville. “It was definitely surreal.”

Spooner found the inhuman remains after she began carrying out her father’s last wish — sprinkling his ashes at his favorite places across the city and Long Island.

Harry Spooner, a commercial artist, died last October at the age of 79 from pneumonia and an infection.

His daughter immediately began by peppering the ashes at Canaan Lake, her father’s favorite relaxation spot, in North Patchogue.

Spooner, a rehabilitation therapist, then flew a vial of the remains on the tail of a butterfly-shaped kite — one of his favorite activities.

Next followed her jaunt through New York City, where her father was born and raised.

She dusted the dinosaur in the lobby of the Museum of Natural History, where he spent time as a child.

But before Spooner, 52, could make a sentimental journey to Coney Island to spread ashes on the sand, she spotted the debris in the ashes.

Also among the trash were pieces of bone and the unburned whisks of a dust broom.

“My heart was pounding. I said, ‘What the heck is that? A spring?’ It flipped me out. I called the funeral home and told them, ‘I just found springs in my dad’s ashes,’ ” she said.

When she demanded an explanation from the director of the Joseph Slinger-Hasgill Funeral Home in Amityville, he said other debris from previous cremations probably found its way into the ashes, and said that was the responsibility of the crematorium.

“The guy said to me, ‘Oh, maybe he had a spring in his pocket,’ ” she said.

Spooner’s next call was to the state, and now the Division of Cemeteries is investigating. She’s also considering a lawsuit against the funeral home.

“I was shocked. Office refuse is just not acceptable” amid last remains, said her lawyer, Jeffrey Lisabeth.

“It’s just a shame that someone can’t just let their loved one rest in peace,” he added.

Both the funeral home and the Long Island Cremation Co., in West Babylon, declined comment.