When cleaning out my deceased father's electronics closet, I found a 1st gen iPhone. Fortunately its charging cable was nearby. I charged it and, miraculously, it turned on, and was in fact fully usable (minus calling, due to no SIM card). Note that the device is almost 20 years old at this point.

In contrast, none of the various Android devices he collected over the years turned on. One came close, then errored out right after booting.

> (minus calling, due to no SIM card)

Could also be due to incompatible radios. 2G GSM isn’t available everywhere anymore (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2G#Phase-out), nor is 3G (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3G#Phase-out).

Might actually be worth something, as there's not that many of them around (especially that work).

Sorry for your loss.