I'm sure this has been asked before, but I'm unable to find it

My iPod Touch was my life, back in good ol' 2010-2011. I met my (now ex) boyfriend, went through a lot of life drama, mental illness, the works.

I recently found out that my ex passed away, and would do anything to read our messages one more time, revisit the past. Please don't patronize me with tips to move on, that isn't what I'm here for...this is something I'd like to do in order to move on.

Of course, the problem is, sometime way back...oh, idk, 2012 or so? I ended up forgetting my password and, like an idiot, locking my iPod touch. I've looked everywhere, and I haven't found a way to unlock it without connecting to iTunes, restoring, losing everything.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Are there services that can somehow extract this data? I'm at a loss, and heartbroken over the prospect of the (secondary) loss.