2020 will remain forever in our memory as the year that changed the lives of practically all the inhabitants of the planet.  The virulence with which COVID-19 has hit us has undoubtedly led us to raise existential doubts about the meaning of our lives, love relationships and affections, and to reflect on concepts such as loss, memory and nostalgia that are present in all aspects of our lives since the pandemic began.  Hence, the articles that have been collected in this new Verbeia monograph address these issues from very different disciplines.  For Ignacio Castro Rey, nostalgia invades aspects of our behaviour, identity and our “landscapes” without our barely realising it and points to the fact that any leap forward actually requires a profound revision of the past. On the other hand, Carlos Lacalle explains in his article how the meaning of loss is multiple and not exclusively associated with the past, but it makes reference indiscriminately to any temporal directionality.  Asunción López Varela examines the semiotic basis of nostalgia as an affective structure, while Juan Orellana exemplifies the importance of affection in family relationships as they provide security to the individual.  Finally, Ana M. Martín Castillejos emphasises how the feeling of loss is also a creative tool that invites action, thereby becoming an engine for change.  This pandemic has given us the opportunity to meditate on the difficult situation in which all human beings find themselves immersed, and the present monograph may serve to reflect on the essential issues that we tend to overlook in the whirlwind of our daily lives.  Ana M. Martín Castillejos.