TITLE:
Love as a Continuing Practice Theory —A Pre-Empirical Middle-Range Theory of Relational Continuity through Illness, Caregiving, and Bereavement
AUTHORS:
Tammy Anderson
KEYWORDS:
Bereavement, Caregiving, Continuing Bonds, Grief, Meaning Reconstruction, Middle-Range Theory
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Nursing,
Vol.16 No.11,
November
3,
2026
ABSTRACT: Illness, caregiving, separation, and death can disrupt valued relationships without ending their influence. Existing theories of continuing bonds, meaning reconstruction, caregiver stress, and hope illuminate aspects of adaptation, but they do not specify how these processes may combine to transform love into sustained relational and ethical practice. This paper introduces Love as a Continuing Practice Theory (LCPT), a pre-empirical middle-range theory of relational continuity through serious illness, caregiving, and bereavement. LCPT proposes a recursive pathway in which disruption generates grief and uncertainty, while compassionate presence and emotional permission foster relational safety. Relational safety may enable reconstructed connection, restored capacity, and adaptive hope, which can develop in parallel, in varying orders, and through mutually reinforcing relationships. Their convergence is expected to strengthen enacted legacy, in which valued aspects of the relationship guide present conduct, and transmitted love, in which caring practices are taken up by others. Contextual conditions influence whether continued connection is adaptive, neutral, distressing, or unsafe. LCPT integrates established constructs into a falsifiable process model proposing conditions under which relational continuity may become adaptive and transmissible. The paper defines the constructs, advances testable propositions, identifies preliminary empirical referents, and outlines qualitative, measurement, and longitudinal research. Pending empirical evaluation, LCPT is offered as a critical heuristic rather than a prescriptive intervention.