Lost all of my emails through no fault of my own

Hi, I've had my email account for over a decade, unfortunately I haven't been able to access it for a while as I lost my password & the link directed to my gmail account was broken.  It's been a nightmare trying to sort it out.  Now, that I finally get access to my account, everything has disappeared.  I know after reading posts that this has been a huge problem for people but I'm wondering if there really is anything you can do to help.  I've got some really important documents within various folders, receipts etc & I really need to get hold of them.