Is it possible to recover a deleted folder and its contents as opposed to an individual file?

When I turned on my computer today, a folder located on my desktop is no longer there. Astounded I could have accidentally deleted it, the folder having been trashed is the only illogical logical possibility I can think of - and is a first for me in my 30 years of Mac use. My father is in the process of dying and the folder contains all the information coming to me on the subject. The last backup of this folder is about a week old and much has been added since for which I've no record.
Not having a master document or table of contents listing what was in the folder leaving me unable to search for and recover individual files/documents by name, my question is this: Is it possible to recover a "FOLDER", and its contents after that folder has been moved from the desktop to the trash, the trash emptied, and the computer having been shut down?
If anyone has any ideas of how to recover anything about what items that folder contained, I'd really appreciate whatever thoughts you might have.
Thanks in advance -
The computer this folder is missing from is a early 2008 MacPro, running 10.7.5.

I'm not sure what you can do beyond trying to restrict the types of files you search for. These apps normally have ways to select the file types or to add example files. That allows them to carve out only those types, but you still may end up with GB's of data, especially if the types are somewhat generic. I don't know of any tools that can undo changes to the disk catalog over time.
I guess you could also search for specific text if you know that these files contained something that is 'almost unique'. Spotlight can do that, or grep, egrep are command line tools that may help ask if you want to go that route, they may help you gather lists to move files around to whittle them down.
Sorry I can't think of a way around this it's a difficult task at a difficult time. Good luck with it, ask if you think we could help.
I do wonder if Apples 'Versions' could help?
OS X Lion: About Auto Save and Versions - Apple Support
@Tony T1, do you know how to restore files from that system? I think it is part of Time Machine, but the copies are saved locally.
It is not entirely clear how it works (at least from my memory of Lion) with regards to how you could get files back in this situation. The database should be at the base of the disk in a hidden folder ".DocumentRevisions-V100", but I don't think you can just pull files out of there. Personally I'd consider making a full disk backup before you attempt to restore files. Then you could try the 'Enter Time Machine' UI to see if it can browse back to the older Desktop.

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