Me too! It’s not like I can really afford a new phone, and it’s been a while since I backed it up.
Theres an unscheduled trip to the Apple store in my near future, perhaps one of their experts can un-brick it, or at least salvage the data.
You have my sympathy. I still sadly reflect, occasionally, on the Awful Hard Drive Crash of my old PC. All my Spanish music, all my pictures, Zot.