All my stickies Notes have disappeared. How can I restore them?

One day, they were fine. The next day, all the notes were gone. I did not upgrade my operating system or upgrade or install any other software.
I found one thread that said to look for the stickiesdatabase file. This file does not exist on my computer.

I am using OS 10.6.8.

Does anyone have any clues to help me get these files back?

Many thanks for any help!